Chapter 6: A Lead

If it wasn’t already made apparent then let the record show that Eun Neugdae did not like vampires. The reasons behind why is as personal as they are practical. The Common Bloods are quite literally parasites whose only functions seem to be acting as fodder for the Noble Bloods, feeding on humans and generally causing chaos in society. As for the other types of vampires the reasons vary but make no mistake he disliked them all. At the same time he is also a fair man and at heart and believes that the individual should not be judged by the crimes of his or her race.

It’s the reason why he did not jump to conclusions when he found out Hwang Soyun is a vampire. Neugdae is aware that vampires like her exist but they are unfortunately the exception to the rule. Case in point the Blood Syndicate he investigated yesterday. In truth he didn’t really plan on doing anything more than get some information and perhaps alert the police to their presence but then h got a look at what middle management had on his computer and let’s just say they dabbled in more than cyber crime.

Of course what else would he expect from a group who thought someone like Ji-Hun was a viable prospect? In the end Neugdae got more than what he asked for, got lost in the sauce so to speak and ended up killing everyone in outrage. Now was that the right thing to do? He’d like to say he didn’t care but as stated before he is a fair man. Good thing about being able to access people’s mind is that you can be extra certain about the validity of someone’s innocence.

No one in that room was innocent so they deserved no mercy and died a swift yet brutal death. Of course he took the opportunity to ensure he wasn’t caught on any kind of devices before doing that and alerted the police after snagging middle management’s flash drive with some specific information on it. He spent a good chunk of last night perusing the various files and what he found was not good. So he will have to take care of dealing with that today which he is not looking forward to since it meant involving himself in the affairs of the city’s Noble Blood.

“Ugh.”

And yet it wasn’t even that inevitability that had Neugdae massaging his temples. No it was because the police showed up earlier today and now rumors about vampires on campus are spreading. That is by no means a coincidence and Neugdae realized he did kind of left Ji-Hun’s stuff in the old Jujong building. To his credit he did it on purpose and not just because hiding his ashes would be more trouble than it was worth. He didn’t really care for Ji-Hun but his parents are actually decent people but terrible parents and deep down he hoped they would receive some closure in knowing what happened to their son.

Granted knowing that your son became a vampire and got himself killed isn’t the best kind of closure even if said son was a piece of shit. No really Kwok Ji-Hun was trash, the type of person who didn’t deserve any kind of sympathy or goodwill because he would leech off of it like a parasite and move on when the host no longer has anything to give. There’s a reason why even his own parents gave up on him and it wasn’t for lack of trying even if it was their terrible parenting that contributed to Ji-Hun turning out the way he did.

That’s beside the point, Ji-Hun didn’t matter and even with the police getting involved isn’t the thing that has Neugdae lamenting his decision, rather it is the reaction to the rumors of a vampire student on campus. With the increased vampire attacks there has been a growing hysteria on campus about the possibility of vampires infiltrating the campus.

It was the end of the day for classes and by this point the news about the attack on Professor Paek by a vampire who turned out to be a student. Despite the identity of the vampire being known at this point thanks to a few students witnessing the attack on the professor occurring it didn’t stop some of the students from acting out.

“THERE ARE DEFINITELY VAMPIRES ON CAMPUS!” a student with a shaved head shouted into a microphone “WE’VE ALREADY HAD AN INCIDENT AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH WE ASK THE ADMINISTRATION REFUSES TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!”

While a crowd of gathered students muttered agreements and cheered him on as he continued to preach from his metaphorical soapbox all around them were other students wearing face masks and dressed in the same blue coat. Neugdae couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the display as well as the fact that medical tents are being set up around the man.

‘It feels like they’ve been planning this for a while.’

Neugdae knew that student as a third year who has been strongly advocating for increased measures for protecting students against vampires. And to that student’s credit he does bring up some good points in that as far as anyone could tell the university didn’t seem to be implementing measures that would protect the students. No additional security, no emergency drills, no special curfews or even switching night classes to online. More often than not it is the professors themselves who have to adapt their methods for security purposes.

It really does seem like the university doesn’t care for its students so there is a point to be made with that. On the other however for Neugdae the entire group’s message fell flat due to the fear mongering. He is never a fan of whipping people into hysteria especially when there hasn’t been a single incident with a vampire on campus thus far. Ji-Hun doesn’t count because he nipped that in the bud before the idiot could do any serious damage.

‘Except for the people he killed on the highway.’

…was it mentioned that he hated Kwok Ji-Hun?

In any case he turned his attention away from both the student preaching on his soapbox as well as thoughts of Ji-Hun to focus on other more important matters.

*Bzzt* *Bzzt*

His thoughts are interrupted by his phone vibrating in his pocket. He read the text message and his eyebrows raised imperceptibly.

“And speak of the devil.”

A While Later…

“Thank you for protecting our Hwang Soyun the other night Sunbae!”

Eun Neugdae blinked as he looked down at his three Hubae all bowing before him and despite managing to maintain a stoic expression internally he cringed.

‘This is embarrassing.’

To make matters worse they are in public and several passersby are staring at the spectacle

“Please stop that” Thankfully they heeded his warning “so what brought this on?”

Min-Son chose to answer “Soyun told us how your quick thinking helped you guys escaped from that vampire you encountered.”

“Really?” Soyun tensed at his gaze “I didn’t think I did much but thanks for the praise and you’re welcome Hwang-Hubae.”

“You can call me Soyun, Sunbae” she replied with the tension lessening.

“Then it’s only right for you to call me Neugdae” he replied and she smiled.

Their moment was interrupted by So-Ra clapping her hands and literally coming between them “aren’t we all such good friends! We should totally hang out together after classes today.”

While Min-Son looked exasperated at her obvious ploy Neugdae and Soyun shared a bemused look with the woman speaking “if Sunbae isn’t too busy.”

“No I’m not doing anything particularly important tonight.”

“Excellent” So-Ra clapped her hands together “now let’s have lunch together.”

While Min-Son shook his head at So-Ra’s antics Neugdae had to raise his eyebrow at her confidence. All the same he didn’t mind, in fact it worked out well for him since he needed to have a serious talk with Soyun anyway.

Meanwhile…

‘It’s just one thing after another’

After getting the call about a possible dead vampire Hwa Chiyon hopped in her car to check out the scene of the crime. Said crime scene is an old condemned building slated to be demolished. Apparently the school groundskeeper noticed something off and decided to investigate only to find that the place was thrashed and some clothes was left resting in a pile of dust. The groundskeeper alerted the school administration who alerted the police and so Chiyon ended up standing at the scene of the aftermath to yet another vampire on vampire battle.

There were multiple broken walls, an entire pillar missing its middle and of course articles of clothing near a pile of grey dust-like sand. Within the clothes are a cellphone and wallet with a student ID belonging to one Kwok Ji-Hun. To be extra sure they also tested the blood spattered at the scene and found it belonged to Ji-Hun. His parents were called in to collect his belongings and Chiyon ended up giving a brief interview with the two.

Chiyon found that Kwok Ye-Jun and his wife Kwok Chae-Young are wealthy entrepreneurs who basically bribed the school with donations to keep their delinquent son in school. Because of this Ji-Hun repeated his final year of university six times however this year they cut him off from both the wealth and various other support. Looking at his online, university and public records it is clear that Ji-Hun was your typical spoiled rich kid turned delinquent who couldn’t function without his parents’ support.

She didn’t know if he chose to become a vampire but he isn’t a good person and from her experience when bad people turn into vampires they become the worst versions of themselves due to a lack of inhibition and letting their newfound power go to their heads. According to school records there was a period of almost two weeks where Ji-Hun missed classes. This isn’t out of the ordinary except this time when he came back he was a vampire.

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Chiyon knows this from interviewing the university staff who noted his odd behavior. They say he looked sick: pale, sweating and constantly drinking. One security guard even said that at one point he upended an entire gallon of water down his mouth, twice. Chiyon knew this as symptoms of a ‘vampire’s thirst’ specifically Ji-Hun was practically at the point where he could literally attack anyone and drain them of blood.

Luckily it didn’t come to that because he apparently died before it could come to that point.

‘Now the question is who killed him and why?’

She could speculate on the why but as for the who?

“Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence but thrice is a pattern.”

*Rumble*

“Hmph” frowning at her stomach Chiyon checked the time.

‘Come to think of it I didn’t eat breakfast this morning.’

“They have any good restaurants in the area?”

After getting some directions Chiyon set out across the campus on her way for a meal. Almost immediately her presence drew attention from the students which is par for the course really. Chiyon is very much aware that she is a beautiful woman and exotic too as shown by her hair color (among other things) which she gained through her father’s European ancestry. She ignored the gawking as she always did in public while following the directions first then the smell of food to a quaint restaurant.

Inside is already populated with some students and her presence immediately drew attention. Again she ignored it to place her order and utterly shock the awed young man with the amount of food.

“Ordering for a friend miss?”

“Nope.”

And on that note Chiyon left the young man to find a seat. Thankfully the place wasn’t so packed that seating was hard to find. She took one in the corner near the back where a group of four students were chatting animatedly. Or specifically the two young women are while the men are more restrained.

‘He’s cute’ she thought of the one on the left and as if hearing her thoughts the man’s eyes met her own and for the briefest of moments Chiyon could have sworn she felt something.

The moment passed however as the others seemed to notice her presence and stare. Chiyon internally chuckled at the rising red on the second man’s face while the women went to gossip.

“Who is that?”

“No idea, think she’s an actress?”

“Model, definitely.”

Chiyon shook her head at the words. It wasn’t the first nor the last time Chiyon was mistaken for someone famous or working in the entertainment industry. She really did not look like a police officer.

‘Ah to be young again’ she thought wistfully which is weird since she’s not much older than the students being only 28 years old.

She couldn’t help it though because at times it really does feel like the stress of her job was shaving time off her lifespan. Case in point there might be a slim chance that the city might have its first vampire vigilante. Emphasis on the slim considering her only evidence (if it can be called that) are three crime scenes that have dead vampires. Having three incidents resulting in dead vampires that took place over the course of two days doesn’t mean much without being able to connect them.

‘What does a washed up gambling addict, delinquent university student and a vampire criminal organization have in common?’

Well the obvious angle would be to link the two former to the latter something she will be doing once she got back to the office. Thankfully her subordinate is going through the Blood Syndicate’s confiscated hard drives even as she sits there.

‘And if they are connected then there will be a commonality to the vampires being targeted.’

Hopefully a deeper dive into the Blood Syndicate might shed some light on the ‘vampire vigilante’ though that in itself is an assumption.

‘For all I know this vigilante might be an assassin or something.’

Chiyon let out an exasperated sigh however a moment later her ears perked up as the inane conversation behind her took a turn for the interesting.

“So did you two really encounter a vampire last night?”

“Y-yeah…”

“So-Ra…”

“I’m just curious is all! But um, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“There isn’t much to say. Sunbae was escorting me home when we saw this thug harassing some guy who turned out to be a vampire who uh…”

“The vampire attacked the thug and when we saw it we ran away.”

‘It can’t be’

Chiyon turned around “would this place you witnessed that attack happen to be at XXXX Street?”

The students startled at her sudden interjection all turned to her with the brown haired girl speaking “um, excuse me?”

The handsome one chose to interject next as the only one who kept his wits about him “what does it matter to you miss…?” he trailed off as Chiyon took out her police badge.

“That’s Officer Hwa Chiyon” she spoke and just about everyone but his eyes widened in shock “and I would like to ask you and your friend some questions regarding an incident that is part of an ongoing investigation.”

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