Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Juni
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Doyoung stared straight into Gamal's eyes, which had a stark contrast between the white and the iris. They were fearless eyes—calm and strong.
Gamal tilted her head toward Doyoung's nape. The breaths leaking from between his lips grew short.
It tickled his skin like puppy grass. Her senses were always overly heightened, which was troublesome, but now they were more sensitive than ever, making the small of his back tingle.
Her lips touched his nape. His skin was hot and soft from a slight fever. There was a faintly sour sweat scent mixed with a woody body odor.
Unknowingly, she licked his nape once, and Doyoung muttered in a low voice.
“Lick it no more.”
“Sorry….”
Gamal mumbled without focus and unwittingly smacked her lips before licking his nape again.
But this time, Doyoung said nothing. With both hands placed horizontally behind him on the wooden pillar, he didn’t move.
As Gamal gradually pressed her body closer, she didn’t realize she had somehow settled into the space between his legs.
Her teeth sank into his nape.
Doyoung’s body jerked sharply. Like an anaconda coiling around its prey, Gamal instinctively wrapped her arms around his body. She felt the firm scapula under her palms.
In her ear, Doyoung panted.
As she sucked deeply, a warmth spread to her fingertips and toes. It was like water droplets hitting a parched body, sending shivers through her entire form.
It wasn’t so much that the blood passed beyond her throat; the moment it touched her mouth, it felt absorbed into her whole body and vanished.
At some point, Doyoung placed a hand on her head.
“I’ll hit your head.”
Gamal gathered her wits and slowly pulled her mouth away. Their eyes met. Doyoung looked a bit tired. In contrast, Gamal’s vision sparkled with rainbow hues.
An ecstatic shimmer rippled in her irises.
“Captain.”
A strangely sweet breath scattered from between her blood-reddened lips. It should have smelled fishy with her own blood, yet it wafted as if filtered through her body.
Her body, which had felt like dry twigs, now gleamed with a pinkish luster.
The vampire after feeding didn’t give off the decadent, eerie vibe one might imagine. Instead, she radiated a vibrant, natural glow like sea pearls—subtle hues of life force, as if the radiance could be grasped in one’s hand….
Doyoung pulled her head in and kissed her just like that. Gamal didn’t startle or resist. As if she’d been waiting, she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Even she didn’t know what she was doing, but she couldn’t stop.
“Captain… mm….”
“No fangs.”
Doyoung panted as he spoke, then kissed her again.
This time, it was very gentle. Though his personality suggested he’d push harder, he cupped her cheek with his large hand, parted their touching lips, opened his mouth, and smoothly slipped his tongue in.
This sensation was unfamiliar to Gamal. The men she’d met before had never been so considerate during physical contact. Part of it was that they were men from lowly-status eras like ancient and medieval times, but simply put, they hadn’t.
“You drive men crazy. When they look at you, all they can think about is claiming you right then and there.”
Daniel had said that.
Daniel was a human she’d stayed with before coming to the island. After rescuing her from a lynching by men in the fields, he invited her to his home and allowed her to stay even after learning she wasn’t human.
He was a man who liked men—what humans had come to call “gay” at some point. That’s why he’d been lynched in the fields.
Having lived through ancient Greece, where homosexuality was even encouraged, Gamal couldn’t understand why it was a problem even if it wasn’t her thing. In any case, because of it, Daniel lived alone in a house far from the village.
It was the perfect environment for Gamal to stay.
Daniel, burdened by a life full of hardships despite his youth, possessed considerable insight.
“Meet someone who knows how to kiss gently.”
His tongue inside her mouth was sweet. It felt like soft candy, so she sucked on it lightly. Doyoung’s body stiffened as if struck.
But finding it better than expected, Gamal did it again.
Suddenly, Doyoung yanked her into a tight embrace. His earlier gentleness seemed like a lie, but the sensation of their bodies pressing together felt strangely good. She wanted more contact.
Yet in that instant, Doyoung snapped back to his senses and pushed her away. Gamal let out a small pant. She’d forgotten to breathe, to the point her vampire lungs felt starved.
“Putain.”
Doyoung muttered a low curse and tried to stand. But without his legs for support, he couldn’t rise from that position right away, and Gamal reflexively reached out to help.
Even in this situation, she was doing that—Doyoung was exasperated.
Doyoung rubbed his forehead once and spoke in a headache-laden tone.
“What if you just stay like that? You should’ve pushed me away if you didn’t like it.”
“The captain’s fine.”
It was strange. At those words, Doyoung’s heart raced. But the next moment, Gamal smiled brightly and said.
“Because we’re friends.”
Doyoung was momentarily dumbfounded. Then a vein bulged at his temple.
“Do you kiss all your friends? I don’t know what country’s common sense that is, but then you’d kiss volleyballs too?”
Gamal’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Why… are you mad? But what’s a volleyball? Is it the captain’s friend?”
“Yeah, my best friend. Get lost, you idiot!”
***
Even as evening fell, Gamal couldn’t approach and watched Doyoung from afar, gauging his mood. But Doyoung didn’t spare her a glance.
“Um, captain….”
Finally, Gamal hesitantly spoke up.
“Won’t you heal the wound on your neck?”
Doyoung turned with emotionless eyes. Right. This was a vampire. No matter how cute the shell she wore, no matter that she lived on flowers, a vampire was a vampire.
And a female vampire couldn’t have a relationship with a human male.
Why? Think about it. Vampires were strong—very. And that applied to their entire bodies. So, what would happen if a human male and female vampire got together… I’ll leave it to your imagination.
Thus, male vampires with human females were possible, but the reverse wasn’t. It was common sense to anyone who knew even a little about vampires.
Of course, Doyoung knew it well, but he’d never thought it would become an issue for him.
No, it still wasn’t an issue. The momentary feeling he’d gotten from this idiot vampire was just a delusion, like Stockholm syndrome in a near-death crisis.
“Should I heal the wound?”
Gamal asked tentatively. Doyoung sighed.
“Yeah. Please do.”
Seeing Doyoung finally calm down, Gamal’s face brightened. As if his emotions mattered deeply to her.
Doyoung said curtly.
“Don’t make that face.”
“What face?”
Gamal asked as if she truly didn’t know. Doyoung let out a long breath and turned his head.
“Never mind.”
After the wound was healed, Doyoung lay down on the beach. The stars twinkled like a Christmas tree, just like the first day he arrived on the island.
Gamal sat beside him.
Listening to the waves rolling in, Gamal suddenly asked.
“But why do you call vampires Luas?”
Well, having lived only on the island, she might not know what was common knowledge outside.
“The Last Universal Ancestor.”
Doyoung said, gazing at the sky.
“Actually, all animals and plants on Earth share a common ancestor. It’s a hypothesis, but basically, humans, the fish we ate today, that grass over there—they were all once the same single species.”
“The same species?”
Gamal sounded incredulous. It was understandable, but Doyoung continued.
“Yeah. And the last ancestor that existed in a shared form before animals became animals and plants became plants is called LUA—The Last Universal Ancestor.”
Waves rolled in, stars shone, and the mood was unnecessarily romantic.
“The unknown X Virus that turns humans into vampires arrived on Earth far earlier than we think, evolved alongside us, and at some point, humans split into human form and vampires into vampire form.”
Of course, it was all like something out of an SF novel as scholars described it.
“So, vampires are called Luas—Luax—by adding an X for ‘unknown’ to LUA, the last shared ancestor form.”
Gamal fell into thought, then asked.
“Then humans and vampires are the same?”
“Scholars call them like brothers. Like Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.”
“Homo sapiens?”
Gamal asked, unfamiliar with the term.
“The scientific name for humans. It means ‘wise man,’ while vampires are called Homo vivens, meaning ‘drinking man.’”
For Homo sapiens, who had long ruled Earth, the emergence of Homo vivens—who preyed on them—was shocking and grounds for hostility. But they just hadn’t known; the two had coexisted on Earth almost from the beginning.
Just as a star isn’t gone because it’s not visible.
“So vampires aren’t monsters.”
Gamal murmured. Doyoung rested his arms on his stomach and closed his eyes.
“That’s just what they called them in the old days. Now, they’re just one of many species.”
Lying side by side like this, talking, reminded him of lying at Grandma’s house by Lake Annecy.
Uncle Julien was reading a book by his bedside, Father Elio paced around with sturdy steps—unusually strong legs. From the kitchen came Mother Sarang’s laughter as she chatted with the cousins.
With his eyes still closed, Doyoung said.
“Gamal. I have a home too.”
Gamal replied softly.
“I know.”
Not just knowing, but she well understood that unlike her home, which had left no trace, his was one that even now waited for its son’s return.
***
Gamal stared at Doyoung in slight bewilderment and asked.
“Captain, did you become a vampire?”
“What are you talking about?”
At the out-of-the-blue remark, Doyoung looked up from his meal. Gamal hesitated but said.
“You eat like a vampire.”
Doyoung had thought things over last night and concluded there was only one thing he could do now: heal his legs quickly. So he focused everything on leg recovery.
And if healing without medicine meant eating well and resting well.
“Just. I’m hungry.”
“More?”
Suddenly, Doyoung stared intently at Gamal and said.