The Vampire Wants Kalguksu - 1
After picking up a few necessities, we drove on toward our destination.
A hotel in Sokcho.
The road there was peaceful and quiet.
"We're almost there," Marie said, eyes on the road as she drove.
I sat in the passenger seat. Valerie, Henri, and Janet filled the back.
"Sorry. I should've gotten my license sooner."
"Don't be. You're covering the hotel for free — driving is the least I can do." Marie laughed it off with a light shrug.
With other people watching, the two of us naturally kept to polite speech.
"I'm grateful too. Last time the Saint covered the travel costs, and now you're the one spoiling us, Ji-hyuk," Valerie chimed in from the back, where she'd been chatting away with Janet. Sitting shoulder to shoulder seemed to loosen her tongue — especially with Janet, of all people.
I glanced back and opened my mouth. Looking at Henri, stuck there like a sack of grain someone had forgotten to reclaim, I felt a strange mix of pity and sorrow.
"Compared to Janet, this is nothing extravagant, so please don't worry about it. Think of it as a chance to rest easy."
It wasn't empty courtesy — it was the truth. Even on a budget airline, tickets to France ran well over a million won a head. And maybe because of Sokcho's reputation for being a little dicey, even nice hotels came cheap. Three rooms for five nights still didn't add up to a single person's airfare.
Didn't that mean the hotels were losing money? Someone might ask. But there were always people ready to fill the gap — the kind who heard "it's dangerous" and went anyway.
You have arrived at your destination. Guidance complete.
I had been quietly taking in the lake that filled the view the moment I turned my head, and the neat stretch of forest standing before the sea like a barrier, when the car's navigation announced our arrival.
We pulled into the hotel parking lot and headed straight for the front desk. Parking was free for guests.
"Ah… welcome."
As we closed the distance, the front-desk clerk blinked in surprise. A pack of people swarming in with crossbody bags instead of rolling luggage would do that to anyone — and that was before you counted Henri, Marie, Valerie, and Janet with her face half-hidden. A crowd of well-built, good-looking foreigners was enough to leave anyone staring. Even if he stumbled a little, the way he still managed a proper greeting was almost admirable.
"Yes. Reservation under Seo Ji-hyuk."
"One moment, please."
The clerk hurried through the computer, then pulled out three card keys. We'd arrived a little after check-in time, so there was no waiting.
"Here you are. Take the elevators over there up to the sixth floor."
"Thank you."
I took the keys and handed one each to Marie and to Henri and his wife. All three were the same standard rooms, side by side — no hierarchy. When I'd tried booking something pricier, most of them had said it would only make them uncomfortable. I preferred a decent room over an expensive one myself. Bigger usually just meant more money. Still, I'd asked a few more times just in case. Standard it remained, all the way through.
"For the afternoon, rest however you like. We'll meet again for dinner. Feel free to wander."
I gave the brief notice outside the rooms, then opened my door. The others nodded and disappeared into theirs.
Janet and I shared one. The Henri couple took another. Marie had the last one to herself.
"I heard there's a pool here… want to go together?"
Thud. Janet set her bag down, barely sat in the chair, and brought up the pool. The swimsuit she'd bought a few days ago flashed into my mind with sudden clarity.
"You want to go right now?" I asked.
"If you're not up for it, rest. But… you're fine, aren't you?"
Her gaze dropped to my lower half. The slight narrowing of her eyes, the look cast down that way, made her intent shamelessly obvious.
"I've got nothing to say to that."
I wanted to see, so I nodded without a fight. If I'd still been in some ancient grandfather's body, maybe it would have been different — but in a young one, the blood ran hot, and so did the desire. Janet was the same. Ever since she'd first fallen as my woman, she'd been single-mindedly devoted to milking me dry.
"Works for me."
"Then let's call Marie and go together. Leave the married couple to rest on their own."
A sharp little smile hooked the corner of Janet's mouth. It sounded like consideration for Henri and Valerie — and a quiet way of freezing them out at the same time.
Fair enough.
There was a gap between us and the Henri couple that couldn't really be closed; opening up was hard. Reincarnation — and a past life tangled that deep — had a way of doing that.
I nodded and pulled out a small bag. I'd packed for exactly this: swimsuits, towels, shower things. Janet dug a small bag of her own out of the one she'd set down.
"We'll go change, then meet at the main pool?"
"Yeah — but are you sure? There won't be many people, but it won't be empty either."
"I'll just say I look like someone. And I'll be wearing sunglasses."
Bluff it out, shamelessly. I wasn't sure it would work — and yet it was the kind of method that somehow did. Once the person themselves said no, most people naturally started to second-guess.
"Alright. Let's go."
Gear ready, plan checked — we moved at once. Marie came with us, of course.
Swimsuits. On women like Janet and Marie, they looked built to set desire on fire.
"I'm a little nervous. I've never worn a swimsuit before," Marie said as we walked the hallway. The shy way she said it caught me off guard.
"Never?"
"Not once. Have you, Ji-hyuk?"
"I… haven't either."
Had I? Thinking it through, I'd never once had the chance to put one on.
"What about you, Janet?" I asked, catching the eye of the woman walking beside us. I was curious how it had been for her.
"I have… a few times. When I was little, we stopped by the coast now and then." Janet nodded with a smile. It wasn't that strange, but given her family, it still felt different. A private stretch of shore sealed off from ordinary people. Some villa scenery I'd never seen seemed to rise behind the words.
"We're here. See you in a bit."
Talking had carried us to the changing rooms before we knew it. From here we had to split — that much was obvious.
A row of pure white sunbeds lined one side of the pool. A few people played in the wide water under the parasols. Stepping out of the changing room felt like becoming rich overnight.
No need for a swim cap, at least.
Some hotels made them mandatory, fretting about loose hair. Not this one. I stretched out on a sunbed and savored the ease. Whether it was better tech or not, the water looked clean — and so did the hair of the people in it.
"Did we keep you waiting?"
I'd been congratulating myself on shaving with lotion when Janet and Marie slipped up beside me. Janet wore sunglasses and a black halter. Marie, a white monokini. Bodies like that in swimsuits were pure, concentrated heat.
Vulgar as it was… I was hard.
Was this how that man had felt, standing there staring at the Mona Lisa's hands? An unexpected kinship left my head spinning — and the faintly damp hair, the bare skin, only made it worse.
"Honestly. You."
Janet's cheeks colored as she perched beside me. The open line of her waist and hips, pressed so close, was intensely stimulating.
"Shall I… wear the swimsuit for you today?" she whispered, lips at my ear. The sharp-sweet hush of it tickled in a way that went straight through me.
"Aren't you looking at the Saint a little too much?"
Even Marie sat down on my other side, making her displeasure plain — the sidelong glance, the set of her eyes. She had the air of a girlfriend whose boyfriend had let his attention wander.
"Janet's my wife. Looking's free."
"And me?"
"A friend is… kind of different, isn't it?"
"Then what if I weren't a friend? What if I were your woman too, Ji-hyuk?"
For a second the answer I hadn't seen coming sent a chill down my spine. It felt like taking a hit to the back of the head.
Am I dying today?
With the cold premonition of death locking my mouth shut, a faint curve touched Janet's lips.
"Why so tense? Did you think I was going to say something about it?"
"Uh…?"
The sound slipped out on its own. Even in the swirl of it, her reaction was nothing like the dozen scenarios I'd already run.
"Honestly… yeah. I figured that's how it ought to be."
When I answered in that halfhearted voice, Janet's eyes curved into crescents — the look of someone delighted by a cute child.
"That's fine. Anyway — for now, let's just play."
She glossed past it and stood, catching my arm and hauling me along until I felt myself being dragged. The bait she'd tossed out so casually only made it worse.
"Wuph—!"
Even so, the moment we plunged into the pool and water crashed over my head, my mind went blank. Blank enough that I simply rode the current of play. Marie did too.
"It's a little embarrassing, but… not bad."
"Quiet places are more comfortable. Hotels are nice, but deep nature looks wonderful too."
The two women, soaked through, kept the mood easy and warm. Bodies shifting above and below the surface stoked a possessive hunger — water threading down between exposed collarbones, the heavy sway of them, the strings caught on lush hips. Anyone would have stared; the sight had that kind of depth.
And through it all we swam, dove, did a little of everything, until the surprisingly fun stretch of time ran out far too fast. Fast enough that I found myself thinking we had to hurry.
"We should go. We'll be late."
"You're right. We must have gotten carried away."
Fortunately we all climbed out on time, washed up, and gathered without running late. With the rooms all in a row, there was no need to meet in the lobby. Once I'd confirmed everyone was there, I took the lead.
Dinner was a raw-fish feast at a hoe house.
"You went to the pool alone?"
"It's fine. We were still in the same hotel, and you worry too much. We came to relax — so we should relax."
On the walk out of the hotel, Henri spoke with Janet, looking startled. He didn't seem to have spent the afternoon quietly resting in his room; exhaustion showed on him. Even while working his chopsticks at the restaurant, and later on the way back to the hotel, his shoulders stayed slumped. Whether to call it pitiful or simply good for him was a judgment I couldn't quite make.
"I'm going to grab something to drink from the convenience store."
After half-watching TV in the room and letting my thoughts wander, I got up slowly. A drink, and a light walk while I was at it.
"I'll come with you," Janet said, starting to rise. The wish to tag along was plain in her eyes.
"It's fine. It's right nearby — I'll be back quick. Rest. What do you want?"
"Then… could you bring me some water?"
Still, there was no real need for company, so I stepped out alone. Being a couple didn't mean being glued together every second. Both of us needed time to savor a little quiet on our own.
Nice.
Walking the night streets by myself brought a real sense of ease — all the more so in a country where, whether the modern world ran plain or with a streak of fantasy, public safety tended to be solid.
"Excuse me."
A little way past the convenience store, a man standing on the road spoke to me. He looked Western, and he used English, which made him a bit hard to follow.
"Ah — yes. Slowly, slowly."
When I asked him to take it slow, he did. That was enough for me to roughly grasp the situation. He'd found a place to stay, but the neighborhood was new to him and he'd gotten lost. He'd come with friends, left his phone behind, and was stuck. That was the story, more or less.
"Ah — I know it. Let's go."
Once I'd heard him out, I nodded and fired off a string of let's-gos. It was a little surprising, but I figured foreign tourists could end up in Gangwon Province too.
"Oh! Thank you!"
A quick search on my phone showed it was a different hotel, but not far — a somewhat longer walk would do it. I texted Janet that I'd be a bit late, then followed the map.
We took sidewalks; at times we cut through alleys.
"We're almost there."
As we neared the destination, the man kept thanking me over and over. It felt a bit like I'd pulled someone back from the brink, and I was quietly pleased with myself. So I was light on my feet, about to turn away —
"Thank you so much for helping me. As a token of my gratitude, how about a cup of coffee? My treat."
He spoke calmly. I couldn't catch every word, but the polite tone and the words coffee and time were enough to get the meaning.
What to do? Getting kidnapped out of a perfectly normal hotel seemed unlikely — and turning down goodwill just because something felt a little off also seemed unkind.
I hesitated a moment, then took my phone from my pocket.