Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Juni
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Do-young let out a sigh.
“I told you, we’re not talking about the tribe.”
Once an outsider came in, they didn’t let them leave again.
That was the tribe’s rule, to protect the secret of the tribe’s existence.
Even after Do-young tried persuading them that he had no interest in the tribe and no reason to tell anyone else, it was like talking to a brick wall. It seemed they had no intention of simply letting both Gamal and Tora go.
Now there were two vampires trying to keep him stuck on the island, and trying to uncover the secret on the other side of the island felt like sinking deeper into a quagmire.
“Anyway, it’s not like you’re going out for just a day or two, so nothing major will happen….”
Tora was speaking when suddenly a tribe woman tackled him from behind.
Tora burst into laughter as he pulled the woman onto his lap. She seemed to be throwing a tantrum about being left alone. Tora whispered sweet nothings to her, his tone dripping with honey. Only then did she look satisfied.
Then Tora nudged Do-young’s knee with his back. Do-young furrowed his brow slightly but didn’t react otherwise.
Gamal said nothing either, so the temperatures of the four people sitting side by side felt like fire and ice.
Perhaps because of the chaos earlier in the day, things were awkward between Do-young and Gamal. Gamal didn’t glare at Do-young with reproach for pushing him off the cliff, but strangely, he was quieter than usual, lost in thought.
Tora and the tribe woman got even more affectionate before Tora suddenly scooped her up and stood. Without even a goodnight, he disappeared toward the house.
Silence stretched between the two left behind. At some point, Do-young turned and asked,
“You?”
Startled by the sudden question, Gamal flinched and looked back.
“Me?”
“Don’t you ever go outside?”
“Ah….”
Gamal shook his head.
“I don’t leave the island.”
That was still his only response. Do-young muttered in a tone of resignation.
“Yeah, now I get it. They say forcing a hermit loner out just makes them hole up more.”
More silence settled in, and Do-young brushed off the peanut shells and stood.
“Guess I’ll sleep.”
The middle-aged tribe woman had gestured earlier that they could sleep there today—in the house to the right, right up against the porch.
But Gamal didn’t follow. Do-young glanced back curiously. Gamal was staring at the fire, then looked at him.
But that was it. He just gazed with clear eyes. Asking if he was going to sleep too felt like Do-young was begging him to come along, so he just turned and went into the house, lying down on his spot.
He waited a bit longer, but Gamal really wasn’t coming.
Do-young was dumbfounded.
‘So you’ve got your own people?’
When had he been so cute, hugging him and talking about pigs?
For some reason, he felt angry. He had worshippers treating him like a god, and clients too. In the end, Do-young had just been entertainment, munching peanuts while they tested if he was trustworthy.
‘Why am I even mad?’
Do-young was even more baffled by himself. The strange tension between them was probably just the uninhabited island atmosphere sweeping them up. An atmosphere he’d deliberately created, at that.
Do-young squeezed his eyes shut and tried to sleep.
***
A small hand groped his stomach.
The touch carried clear intent. Half-asleep, Do-young nearly laughed. This sneaky guy had come late to poke at his side.
But he wasn’t going to let it slide easily, so Do-young turned over as he spoke.
“Gamal, what time is it….”
Then he jolted in surprise. It wasn’t Gamal—a young woman from the tribe was looking down at him. The one whose face he’d glimpsed passing by earlier.
She smiled brightly, said something, and leaned in to kiss him. Do-young quickly pushed her away and sat up.
“What are you doing?”
She said something again and tried to kiss him once more.
Words weren’t getting through, so Do-young stood, left the woman who was grabbing at him while saying something, and opened the door to step out. He nearly collided with another woman standing right there.
“What the….”
Do-young was flabbergasted. Women were lined up in front of the door like at a popular restaurant.
The women chirped like birds as they swarmed him. They chattered away, but of course, Do-young couldn’t understand a word.
That’s when he spotted Gamal, still sitting by the dying fire on the porch.
“Gamal.”
Do-young gestured at the women and asked what was going on, but Gamal just stared.
Do-young pushed through the women and went to the porch. They grumbled in dissatisfaction and protested, but didn’t follow.
Do-young turned back to them and asked,
“Why are they like this?”
Gamal, not particularly flustered, replied,
“You came from outside.”
“So?”
“Guests from outside are precious. They give us healthy children.”
Do-young was truly, utterly dumbfounded.
“You don’t mean… this is why?”
That’s why he hadn’t followed him to sleep.
Gamal stared at the fading fire and didn’t answer. Do-young stared at her intently.
“You know that doing this without consent is called sexual harassment where I’m from?”
Gamal hugged her knees and said,
“That’s how it’s always done in the tribe.”
He realized why the tribe had so many mixed-bloods for natives. In the closed environment of an island, it was probably an inevitable choice for genetic diversity.
With Gamal beside him, the women just gossiped from afar and didn’t approach. Soon, they gave up and dispersed to their houses.
They must have realized Do-young wasn’t in the mood for anyone tonight. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like they’d tie him up and use him as a stud like in some novels about Amazon tribes.
Do-young wasn’t sure if he should be angry.
“I’m so speechless…. I’m wide awake now.”
He sat down beside Gamal.
Gamal fidgeted with her fingers. When Do-young had said he was going to sleep, she’d wanted to stop him. But she couldn’t break the tribe’s rules. Especially since everyone had been waiting for this day.
In truth, not all the rustling in the bushes that Do-young had heard before had been Tora.
Even though it was forbidden, curious girls had sneaked to the other side of the island to see Do-young. When they asked Tora how this guest was, he’d apparently replied, ‘Very handsome.’
From what Gamal had observed over the years, young men and women’s interest in beautiful opposites couldn’t be stopped even by ancestors.
The girls had peeked at Do-young from beyond the bushes. They were utterly captivated by his blue eyes flecked with gray, the refined air of the civilized world mixed with the savage allure of a tribal warrior. They clamored to be introduced to him in the tribe.
Gamal had soon realized Do-young was trustworthy but didn’t want to introduce him to the tribe. Because she knew this was waiting.
Lost in those thoughts, her eyes met Do-young’s as he massaged the back of his neck.
Ah…!
Then a strange sound came from afar. Faint, like a woman’s scream…. But definitely a little different.
The moment he suspected, Do-young figured out what it was, and realized Gamal had too. Embarrassed, she said,
“It’s Tora.”
Do-young snorted.
“No kidding.”
Male Luas and human women were possible.
At this point, he even thought about how the vampire species had so few females—earning jokes about ‘men’s bathhouses’—and that evolutionarily, females were more disadvantaged.
Male Luas had two options: female Luas and human women. But female Luas had only one.
They didn’t give birth through male-female unions anyway, so it probably wasn’t really like that.
“You can pick anyone, even Aki.”
Gamal said suddenly.
“Aki?”
He couldn’t recall who that was. Gamal pointed toward the direction the sounds were coming from.
“Wasn’t she pretty?”
Come to think of it, she was quite a beauty, but after seeing Gamal so much, his standards had skewed—he hadn’t thought of her as particularly pretty. But before that….
“Isn’t she that guy’s wife?”
When Do-young asked incredulously, Gamal shook her head.
“Tora doesn’t have a wife. She’s his lover now. It’ll change soon. Always does. The girls are proud to have been Tora’s lover even once. Tora’s the tribe’s guardian deity.”
Do-young figured it was his own fault. The rotten common sense of the civilized world kept getting in the way of accepting other cultures without prejudice.
But being able to pick anyone like some slave trader’s right—who gave them that, and where to even begin criticizing it?
No matter the tribe’s rules, Do-young had a basic sense of human rights.
Then a sudden thought struck him, and he looked steadily at Gamal.
“You can pick anyone? Even you?”
At those words, Gamal clamped her mouth shut like she’d been pricked. She looked down and mumbled.
“I can’t have children.”
“I just asked if you could pick.”
“If it’s not about having children, there’s no need to pick… right?”
Do-young stared at Gamal.
“So it’d be okay? If you picked someone.”
Gamal just fidgeted with her hands and didn’t answer. Do-young let out a long breath that felt like a sigh but wasn’t and stood.
“I’m going back to sleep.”
He walked toward the house. No sound of Gamal following.
But the moment he opened the door, Gamal suddenly grabbed his wrist from behind.
“I….”
In that instant, Do-young pulled Gamal toward him and pushed her inside.
Click.
The door shut.
Gamal leaned against the wall, her shoulders pressed back, breathing hard. In the darkness, Do-young said softly,
“Tell me.”
Gamal knew it was selfish to monopolize Do-young when she couldn’t have children, but she had to say it. Clutching the hand on her shoulder, she whispered tearfully.
“Don’t pick anyone.”
The moment their lips met, Gamal was filled with ecstasy. She could only call it ecstasy.
Do-young pulled back his hot lips, melting like they would dissolve into her, and whispered,
“Gamal, do what you want. Don’t think of anything else.”
Sometimes he felt Gamal didn’t clearly say what she wanted. Especially when it seemed like she was being considerate of someone.
It was probably because she was kind, but Do-young didn’t like that. With a personality like that, she couldn’t have survived three thousand years if she hadn’t lived on this island.
Do-young looked deeply into Gamal’s eyes and said,
“So tell me what you want.”
“Kiss me, more.”
Gamal said, as if entranced. Do-young smiled faintly, like praise.
Gamal felt her heart drop with a thud.
While she stared, entranced, Do-young kissed her again. His head bent, stray bangs tickling her face.
Her head tilted back, Gamal suppressed the urge to pull him into a fierce embrace and instead stroked his back.
She didn’t know how to define this feeling. Her head spun, ecstasy boiled within, her heart pounded—this unfamiliar sensation.