Episode 8
Doyoung thought for a moment before asking again.
"When did you come to this island?"
This time, Gamal didn't answer immediately but looked out at the sea instead. As if gazing in the direction she'd come from long ago.
"Long ago."
A pale light passed through her eyes as she stared straight at the horizon.
"Very long ago."
Her sharp gaze suddenly made her seem like a different woman. Strangely, Doyoung found her face familiar.
But before he could figure it out, Gamal turned and handed him a fully cooked fish.
"Eat."
She smiled brightly.
He couldn't tell why she seemed so dog-like. Not as an insult, but like a fully grown puppy.
Doyoung accepted the perfectly grilled fish and took a bite.
"Did you make the salt too?"
He asked, having seen her sprinkle white powder from a hollowed-out wooden barrel earlier.
"Boiled seawater."
Gamal answered while picking fish bones from her mouth. She seemed to have figured out salt purification. Doyoung muttered:
"Robinson Crusoe's got nothing on you."
Perhaps because vampires had tough tongues, Gamal kept eating the steaming hot fish without flinching, having already devoured half of it. Apparently no one had taught her table manners - her eating was messy.
Even with some exaggeration, someone claiming to have lived three thousand years should display the characteristic aristocratic arrogance of ancient vampires or the apathy, laziness and lethargy typical of those who've lived too long. But this was just some girl squatting and eating roasted sweet potatoes.
At this point, she probably hadn't been high-status even as a human either.
'Was she really born in 14th century BC?'
Doyoung thought skeptically.
Putting everything else aside - how could a vampire who'd supposedly lived thirty-three hundred years be this... pure? Judging by her appearance when human, she'd been at least twenty-five too.
Even accounting for her imperfect French being a handicap, her basic personality didn't match a four-digit-aged vampire at all. It wasn't like she'd been frozen like Dooly either.
Then Gamal opened her tattered crossbody bag, took out a flower and started chewing it whole. Like chewing tobacco after a meal.
Watching this, Doyoung asked:
"Tasty?"
Out of curiosity, Doyoung had once tried Flos that his Ruath colleagues were consuming.
Not long ago - though with everything that happened since, it felt like a hundred years back - a sergeant had described it as "like mixing saccharin into a half-melted, lukewarm mojito," but honestly it was more like plain water. If anything, there was just a bitter herbal aftertaste that made it worse. That sergeant had compared adding saccharin (not even sugar) to spoiled mojito to describe it.
But his Ruath colleagues called it sweet. Not sugary sweet, but sweet in some indescribable way.
"No," Gamal shook her head.
"Bitter."
"Not good?"
Gamal nodded. "Not really."
Apparently while Flos tasted good to vampires, its flower ingredients didn't. "Well," Doyoung mused, "many food ingredients don't taste like much in their natural state anyway."
Ultimately the flowers themselves apparently weren't suitable as staple food. Which explained why flowers hadn't become blood substitutes until modern science developed Flos processing techniques.
Doyoung pointed at the flower and said:
"There's something called Flos. It's made by refining those flowers."
"Refining?"
"Like boiling seawater to make salt. Though organic synthesis makes it more complicated - anyway, modern vampires can survive just drinking that instead of blood. You could get Flos too if you left this island."
But Gamal showed no sign of understanding. She kept chewing the flower like corn kernels throughout the conversation. Doyoung added:
"You wouldn't need to chew flowers like pouring water into a bottomless jar. So if we get off this island-"
Just as he was getting to the point, Gamal looked at the flower and shook her head.
"It's fine. Enough flowers."
Her tone suggested the conversation wasn't worth continuing - unusually firm for her character.
Doyoung opened his mouth to speak further. But Gamal asked first:
"Lieutenant want more fish?"
She reached for the fish in a way that suggested she'd immediately devour his portion if refused. Though Doyoung knew all about vampire appetites...
He sighed.
"Stand down. Let's respect basic human decency."
"I'm not human."
At this deadpan response, Doyoung's eyes narrowed dangerously. Gamal swiftly withdrew her hand.
"Okay. But should protect."
Doyoung wanted to ask - just where exactly did this look like a 3,300-year-old vampire?
It felt like proper eating for the first time in ages.
Doyoung usually avoided overeating, disliking the sluggish feeling. But here with nothing urgent to do, he figured eating more would aid recovery.
Now he sat relaxing endlessly under a tree's shade.
Doyoung stared blankly at the heat-shimmering landscape and mumbled:
"Hot."
"Hot," echoed Gamal beside him, her lower belly visibly rounded from the meal.
"Peaceful."
"Peaceful."
After sitting awhile, Gamal began nodding off. Post-meal drowsiness was an incurable disease across all species.
Scattered clouds drifted lazily across the sky. Though Doyoung wondered if they should be this relaxed, the paradisiacal scenery made it hard to feel any crisis.
Moreover, without Gamal's help, he couldn't do much until his leg healed.
Though cool in the shade, the sweltering air sent sweat trickling down his back beneath the T-shirt. Already feeling grimy from not washing since waking, Doyoung turned to Gamal:
"I need to wash. Any place here?"
Gamal blinked sleepily and reached toward him.
"I'll take you."
When Doyoung took her hand, she smoothly helped him up. Her movements were practiced, like someone who'd long cared for infirm family members.
Gamal led Doyoung through bushes along a narrow forest path. Though everything looked similar enough to get lost, Doyoung mentally mapped the route.
Truthfully, washing wasn't his only goal - he wanted to expand his mental map of the area.
They arrived at a lakeshore similar to where they'd first met, but smaller and more private.
Doyoung surveyed the scene. It felt like some nymph might descend to bathe here. The irony of enjoying this while stranded wasn't lost on him - he'd remember this view even after returning home.
"Wash here."
When Gamal didn't leave, Doyoung raised an eyebrow.
"Not going?"
She pointed beyond the shrubs.
"Nearby. Call if needed."
"What could possibly happen here?"
The island didn't seem to host dangerous beasts.
"Drown."
Doyoung was speechless. Gamal's poor grasp of French tenses made it sound like a command to drown. Her innocent expression left him unsure how to handle this unique character.
"Got it. No peeking."
"Wouldn't peek. Why peek?"
Gamal treated him like the weird one, disappearing into the foliage. Doyoung shook his head and pulled off his shirt.
From behind a tree, Gamal watched like some perverted stalker - though it was actually concern about his injured leg slipping.
As Doyoung started removing pants, he suddenly turned:
"Hey, I feel eyes."
Gamal whirled around.
"Nonsense. Didn't look."
Her human-detecting instincts remained sharp.
Listening to water splash as Doyoung entered the lake, Gamal sat fidgeting her toes. Something felt off, though she couldn't explain it.
No human had ever been this unafraid around her. So unaftered she'd doubted if he was truly human.
But Doyoung was human. Entirely.
Though usually scowling, angry, or raising eyebrows in disapproval, his expressions were vivid. His pleasant baritone voice had brimmed with energy since their first meeting.
Vampires were beautiful corpses - better suited to words like humid nights, blue-tinged ice, or desolate moonlight. They couldn't match Doyoung's vibrant aura.
Even when angry, his intensity overwhelmed. When they'd first met beneath the waterfall during his threatening interrogation, she'd simply stared transfixed.
"Done."
Doyoung's voice snapped her back. She exited to find him already washed and returned.
Noticing the soaked splint wood, Gamal asked:
"Change wood?"
"Yeah."
"Wait."
She found replacement wood and began changing the splint. As she bent over, her torn T-shirt revealed cleavage. Doyoung pointedly looked at her forehead instead.
The gap between her childlike personality and mature physique suggested mild idiocy. Yet during such tasks, she focused like performing the world's most important work.
A cool breeze carrying water scent passed by.
Water droplets fell from Doyoung's damp, disheveled hair.
Gamal looked up. Sunlight through leaves illuminated her red pupils directly. Her iris, resembling countless overlapping petals, held strange undulations.
Though Doyoung had many vampire comrades, he'd never examined their eyes this closely.
Biologically, vampires were predators and humans prey. Specialized predators feeding only on humans, they were natural enemies. Like prey instinctively freezing before a snake's gaze, terror coursed through him while his body refused to look away.
Prey couldn't resist such beautiful predators.
Gamal felt equally strange. His smooth jawline, prominent Adam's apple, and rock-gripping hands felt oddly noticeable. Was this... tension?
Moreover, humans either feared or revered her as deity or monster. But to this man...
