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The Weird World Saga Chapter 7
🕑 Added 2023-02-13 03:44:48 +0000 UTCInterrogation
‘My luck cannot be this bad’ Soyun mentally lamented as she and Neugdae sat across from the apparent police officer.
Unfortunately as So-Ra and Min-Son had nothing to do with the incident they were summarily dismissed leaving her and Neugdae with the ravenous officer.
“Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve god meat dishes like this~” officer Chiyon moaned as she demolished the food, which looked like big enough to serve a group rather than a single person.
‘Wow, look at her go.’
Chiyon wasn’t a messy eater by any stretch, far from it she ate with a kind of dignified poise Soyun had only seen in movies depicting high society. On the other hand she is fast, knife and fork almost blurred as she cut and pick up with speed and precision like a machine on an assembly line. A glance at Neugdae saw that her Sunbae was also amazed at the way how she’s putting away the food.
“Where does it all go?” she heard him mutter under his breath.
Then she saw his gaze dip down to her sizeable bust and not-so-subtly elbow him in the side.
“Ow!?” he hissed and in response she gives him an unimpressed look to which he glanced away.
If the woman caught his stare or the byplay she didn’t comment on it, instead using a napkin to dab her lips.
“Sorry about that, I skipped breakfast this morning.”
“It’s okay, we don’t mind” Soyun spoke with a nervous smile.
“You can have some if you want.”
“We already ate thank you.”
“Alright, since I’m sure you two have classes I’ll make this brief” then her expression turned serious “two days ago the police were alerted to a body that was found at XXXX Street. The victim was a local thug who was attacked by a vampire. CCTV didn’t pick up anything and originally we thought there were no witnesses because no one came forward.”
At that she gave them pointed looks and Soyun felt cold sweat form on er brow under the older woman’s scrutiny.
Then Neugdae spoke “with all due respect officer Hwa we were more focused on actually surviving the night.”
Her gaze switched to the man who seemed unaffected by it “be that as it may there is a reason why civilians are urged to report vampire sightings to the police. If you did we could have gotten there sooner rather than hours later when the vampire’s trail went cold.”
To that Neugdae only shrugged “sorry.”
Soyun’s mouth parted at her Sunbae’s gall and even Chiyon frowned at his cavalier response.
In the end Chiyon could only sigh “it’s fine, I can understand encountering a vampire for the first time can be traumatic.”
Soyun mentally sighed in relief ‘okay this isn’t so bad.’
“I will have you tell me exactly what you saw.”
She ordered and the two relayed their story which basically boils down to they were walking down the streets late, saw a thug harassing a man before the man who turned out to be a vampire attacked the thug and at that point the two ran away without looking back.
“And you two saw nothing else? No one else was present on the street?”
“No ma’am” Soyun answered.
“We weren’t exactly in the right mind to be mindful of our environment at that point Noona.”
“Understandable” she replied with a frown “if that’s all you have then this Noona apologizes for wasting your time.”
“I’m sorry we couldn’t be of any more help” Soyun apologized.
On the inside however ‘phew, dodged another bullet there.’
Then Neugdae opened his mouth “actually there is something I was curious about.”
‘Why~’ Soyun internally cried ‘I just want to go to classes.’
“What is it?”
“What’s the legality of vampirism in Korea?”
If Soyun was drinking something at that moment she would have done a spit take. As it stood she froze on the spot as she regarded her sunbae.
‘What?’
For her part Chiyon blinked at the question not expecting it “can you be more specific?”
“Is it illegal to be a vampire in Korea?”
Soyun could feel her breath hitch.
“That’s an interesting question” she then hummed to herself “technically it is not illegal to be a vampire.”
“Technically?”
A moment later Soyun froze as it took her a moment to realize that she was the one who spoke.
“Vampires are not criminals by design but their nature will eventually set them down that route. They need to drink human blood for sustenance so they will eventually attack humans who die more often than not in the process.”
“But what if you find a vampire who hasn’t attacked anyone?”
Chiyon frowned but kept silent as she contemplated this.
Neugdae elaborated further “say someone becomes a vampire but they have supportive friends and relatives who supply them with blood. Or they just live off of animal blood they get from a butcher shop?”
“These are very specific circumstances” she interjected with a layer of suspicion in her tone as she regarded him.
“I lived in America for a little over a decade and the topic of vampires is a hot one. The west are lot less conservative with their information especially online so I’ve seen a lot of news, political debates, online commentary and forums dedicated to vampires. I’ve seen and read a lot of situations like the ones I just gave but I haven’t seen the Korean government give a definitive answer to those kinds of situations.”
Both women had to take some time to let his words sink in with Chiyon being the first to recover.
“Well as you’ve said the west is a fair bit more liberal with the information they are willing to share to the public. As it stands however vampires are still a grey area in legislature. For all that the fear mongering in the news as well as vampires being legitimately dangerous the fact that people seldom admit is that vampires were once humans too. The truth is there are situations like the ones you describe and not all vampires attack humans. Rare though they are I happen to have been privy to some cases of innocent vampires.”
She paused for a bit.
“According to the law if a vampire can prove that they have not attacked a human then they are treated as a citizen with the medical condition called vampirism.”
“What does that mean?” Neugdae asked.
“Along with being put in the record and further monitored by the government they will also be provided with special care in the form of blood bags from a blood bank as well as being required to do monthly check-ins.”
As she continued to speak Soyun was floored by this information to the point where she couldn’t help but breathe out “I didn’t know about this” she looked the officer dead in the eye “why isn’t that kind of information public knowledge?”
“My guess is that the government is deliberately suppressing that kind of information.”
“What!?” Soyun recoiled looking from the serious Neugdae to the frowning Chiyon “that’s not true…is it?”
At her look the officer sighed “right now public sentiment against vampires is at an all time high and for good reason given the recent jump in attacks. Any kind of information that gets released in support of vampires will be met with backlash and anyone in power supporting them will be crucified by the public.”
“So they just keep quiet about it?”
“The information is out there” Chiyon clarified before adding “it’s just not in a convenient place to find.”
Soyun scoffed “that’s…” she trailed with her hands curling into trembling fists.
It is only the weight of the crucifix tucked under her shirt that kept her from being exposed.
Finally she released a breath “thank you for your time Officer Hwa.”
Chiyon gave the younger woman a contemplative look but nodded all the same “again I am sorry for keeping you from your classes.”
Both students bid the officer farewell and left the restaurant with Soyun looking down in contemplation.
It is only after a minute of walking did she break the silence “why did you as her that question? Was it for my benefit?”
“And genuine curiosity” he added.
“…thank you Sun-Neugdae.”
“Don’t thank me yet, this isn’t over.”
That had Soyun look up for the first time “what do you mean?”
“That alibi isn’t as airtight as you think and she’s suspicious of us”
“You don’t think she thinks I’m a…” she cut herself off to look around for a bit “you know…”
“No but my guess is that the minute she gets back to the station she’s going to check the CCTV to corroborate our story” Neugdae looked to her “if she doesn’t see two university students running for their lives then that’s grounds for suspicion. I really hope you were careful getting home after that disappearing act.”
“I kept my appearance hidden and made the camera on my street caught me going home” he raised an eyebrow at that to which she huffed “if I wasn’t aware of that much then I’d have been caught by the police a long time ago.”
“Well…good for you. At least now you know even if you do get caught you won’t be sent to some private gulag.”
“Gulag?”
“It’s a soviet labor camp-don-don’t pay attention to what I’m saying it’s an American colloquialism.”
Another moment of silence but this time was broken by Neugdae “Soyun there’s something important I need to talk to you about.”
His serious tone caught her a bit off guard “okay, what is-”
Before she could finish both their attentions are taken by a commotion happening right in front of them. A group of students all wearing similar blue coats and medical face masks stood blocking their way. One of them didn’t wear a face mask revealing himself to be Joo-Won the third year student with the shaved head known for being the most zealous activist preaching about the dangers of vampires on campus and the inability of the faculty to do prevent such things.
Already Neugdae can tell this is the escalation point he dreaded where the vampire rumors would make people do something really stupid.
“If the university won’t do anything about it we will take matters into our own hands!” Joo-Won shouted and as one the group raised their hands revealing that they are holding scalpels.
Then as one proceeded to cut themselves.
“Oh my God!” One student exclaimed.
Beside him Soyun could only look on perplexed “did they really just cut themselves?”
“Yes they did” replied an exasperated Neugdae with a palm over his face.
“I know this is a bit excessive but since vampires can heal from wounds very quickly this is the only way to prove you aren’t a vampire!” Joo-Won spoke to the people whose attention he most certainly received after such a display “PROVE YOUR HUMANITY! Everyone should allow a small cut to prove they aren’t a vampire.”
There were a few cheers from Joo-Won’s group but everyone else is more put off by the declaration than anything. Things started going pear shaped however when the group of scalpel wielding weirdos started swarming everyone else.
“Hey you get over here!”
“Ah, get away from me!”
“I don’t wanna do that.”
“How do we know you’re not a vampire huh?”
“Proving you’re not a vampire helps everyone” the leader shouted passionately “just think of it as helping everyone have a peaceful school life!”
“Are you crazy? I’m not letting you cut me!”
Neugdae and Soyun stood at the epicenter of the chaos the former with an annoyed expression while the latter had one of disbelief.
“Dammit” Neugdae huffed in annoyance “he’s right about one thing, the university really is being too lax. How the hell did they allow something like this to happen?”
Soyun had the same thoughts which she voiced out in a long winded sigh of “fuuuuuck~ does God have it out for me this week or what?”
“It really does seem like it huh?” he said with the barest hint of a smirk.
“Not. Funny.”
“Okay, okay let’s get the hell outta here.”
As the two carefully maneuvered their way out of the crowd they were intercepted by three students blocking their path. Two male, one female and all wearing face masks to hide their identity.
“Good evening Sunbae” the female student and leader of the trio greeted as she eyed him whilst hiding her apprehension “won’t you do the test.”
“No I don’t think I will” Neugdae said bluntly something none of them expected.
“W-what?” the male student to his left exclaimed in disbelief.
“S-Sunbae, we won’t cut deep or anything just enough to draw blood and we’ll even administer treatment afterwards.”
“The answer is still no. We’re not doing your little test so get out of the way we’re already late for our classes.”
At the last sentence Neugdae straightened up and suddenly the height disparity between him and the three became very apparent as he loomed over them. Still they were nothing if not persistent and as the female student looked between him and Soyun who was practically hiding behind him she scowled indignantly.
“Why are you trying to avoid this? Just go through the test.”
With her looking at Soyun as she said this the disguised vampire felt the need to reply “aren’t you just suspecting people for no reason? Besides you shouldn’t be forcing people to go through with this.”
That was mistake as one of the male students practically exploded “how could you say that after the incident that happened!? The police found evidence of a vampire student!”
“That’s just a rumor.”
“It shouldn’t matter!” the one to the left of the female student shouted as he surged forward with a scalpel “just do the damn test!”
“Oi” that single word caused everyone to freeze and the student before who had been filled with righteous indignation shivered under the gaze of Neugdae “I’ll tell you right now that vampires will be the least of your worries if any of you come near us with those things.”
As his gaze swept over the three they all shriveled under his gaze and the student took a few steps back. Neugdae may not have been causing trouble but everyone from the second year and above knew that he was not a pushover in the slightest. At this point everyone knew the incident that happened between him and Kwok Ji-Hun the university’s fossil and infamous delinquent.
“What’s going on here?”
All eyes turned to bald man before one of students answered “these two are resisting Joo-Won.”
Joo-Won looked to Neugdae and greeted him with a respectful nod “Eun-Sunbae.”
“Joo-Won.”
