Chapter Text
"Excuse me... Naru-nim?" Choi Han approached rather awkwardly. It wasn't as bad as when he tried to lie, but still a weird expression.
"What is it?"
"Can I talk to you? In particular?"
Naru could feel cold sweat forming on his back.
"Sure."
Hesitantly Choi Han lead the way to a more secluded area in the woods near the Von Ejelan villa. He turned around and stared a Naru for a couple of seconds, trying to find the best way to touch a topic that could end up being sensible to the both of them.
"So... Uhm... Well... I wanted to ask where... Where did you learn to wield a sword like this?"
"Ah."
Naru was kind of expecting this question to pop up at some point after all he did have his suspicions that Choi Han may have been part of Choi Jung Soo's family. It would make sense, since their sword art was the same, plus the family name and the fact that Jung Soo did mention at some point that his family had some historic of members going missing (although he never said anything beyond that). Nonetheless it still somehow caught him off guard.
He really was regretting trying to appease the baby dragon just for the sake of making him shut up, it just made a bigger mess than just letting the black dragon shit talk him and call him weak.
"C'mon dongsheng, you know you can't just rely on your guns all the time"
"Why not? Is not like I'm in the front lines, and besides, I'm good with guns."
"Not in the front lines my ass, you're always butting in when someone is in danger and always end up hurt, so much for not liking pain."
"Jung Soo..."
"Oh c'mon, if you learn to use a sword I'll stop nagging."
"We both know you won't."
"If you don't let me teach you I'll tell hyung"
That finally got a reaction out of Kim Rok Soo who visibily flinched.
"So...?" Jung Soo smirked.
"Okay..." Rok Soo sighed.
"Ha! Yes! Now I won't have a heart attack everytime we go on missions!" Rok Soo simply sighed at that.
"Who's having a heart attack?" Came a voice right behind Choi Jung Soo.
"Hyung!" Jung Soo turned around to face Lee Soo Hyuk like a deer caught in the highlights.
"... Team leader." Lee Soo Hyuk narrowed his eyes at the youngest unusual hesitation.
"So?"
"Is me, because dongsheng is an idiot everytime we're on missions. So I convinced him to let me teach him how to use a sword in case his guns malfunction or if he run out of bullets."
"Jung Soo you bastard." Rok Soo greeted his teeth.
"Hum... Sounds like fun, Imma join in." The team leader smiled sweetly, with to Rok Soo only looked threatening.
"Team leader, no." He could feel the cold sweat running down his spine.
"Team leader, yes. Now get up."
Kim Rok Soo stubbornly averted his gaze and looked at the nearest wall. Maybe if he pretended those two didn't exist they would go away and leave him alone.
"Naru-nim...?"
"..." Without noticing, the child lowered his gaze to the ground and became silent.
"Naru-nim?" Choi Han approached him carefully tentatively reaching out, but stopping upon seeing Naru's face better. His eyes were reddening as if he was about to start crying.
"A-Ah! Naru-nim I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to upset you is totally okay if you don't want to." Naru was always strong and level headed, so seeing him about to cry send the swordmaster into a bit of a panic.
"No, it's fine."
"I'm sorry, It's okay if it's difficult for you to talk abou-"
"They're dead." Naru cut him off with a barely audible whisper.
"What...?"
"My hyungs are dead. They taught me."
"Naru-"
"They were human..."
"Ah... Naru-nim I'm really sorry for asking!" Naru was a vampire and although he was a child he still was over 150 years old. If his hyungs were human, thank they would logically leave this world way before Naru would. But that was the best case scenario. Naru was a dark creature, a outcast at best and something to be hunted down and killed at worse, anyone caught helping someone like him could end up facing the same fate is caught.
It was a misunderstanding, really.
What happened was completely different, but just as bad. The cataclysm, the monsters, the unranked monster, their faces while they died.
Choi Han, of course, had no way of knowing any of that so he couldn't help put think over those possibilities.
Maybe he shouldn't have asked. Even if they were Korean and even if they were part of Choi Han family they're still gone regardless. Dwelling on this matter wouldn't to any good, neither for him nor for Naru.
"Please just forget I asked..."
"... Is okay."
The dark figure hidden in the shadows behind a tree silently sighed and begun to walk away.
"Kim Rok Soo?" One of the Company employees called out while holding a fairly large and alonged box.
"Yes?" He replied while raising his head.
"Is about the investigation of the Team One unranked monster incident scene."
At that declaration some employees averted their gaze and pretended to not be paying attention and others started whispering among themselves.
"... What of it?"
"Besides their corpses retrieval during the first inspection, in the most recent survey both Team leader Lee Soo Hyuk and Choi Jung Soo's swords where found."
Kim Rok Soo flinched at that.
"Since you are the sole beneficiary of their wills, those swords should also belong to you now." She said while gently placing the box over his desk. "That's all, excuse me."
"..." Rok Soo didn't bother to pay attention to her retreating form, instead he stared at the box.
He didn't feel anything. He felt numb.
He felt too much, it felt like he was suffocating.
He reached out to the box. He didn't noticed his hands were trembling. He could feel something erawling all over his arms. More people begun to whisper. To Rok Soo, however, it was all distant muffled white noise.
Upon touch the box seemed to burn his hand. He was shivering and he felt like throwing up.
He took his hand away from the box and went back to filling paperwork. He was pretending the box wasn't there.
"Naru, my son, you do know you didn't have to share all that with that swordmaster, right?"
"I know... I just felt I needed to."
"May I ask why?"
"... Maybe Choi Han is part of one of my hyungs family."
"Because of the sword arts?"
"And the surname."
"I see." An awkward silence befell them after that quick exchange.
Fredo started to think.
He wasn't a real father and Naru wasn't a real child, but all the instincts and feelings were there, instincts and feelings, however, could only take one so far. So how exactly should Fredo approach this? How did his own parents used to approach him when he wasn't feeling well? "... Do you want to talk about it?"
Another heavy silence. This one was longer.
"Have you ever felt like you were cursed?" As a dark creature, the answer was obvious, and Fredo knew his son also knew it, so he stayed quiet and just let his son continue. "Cursed to always be alone? That everyone around you hate you and if they don't they will be taken away?"
Naru's voice started to waver. Fredo eyes widened and he looked at his son in alarm.
He was crying.
Naru was crying.
His almost emotionless child was crying.
Without thinking Fredo picked his son up and started to slightly bounce. He didn't say a word and just held him tighter.
How awful, to have as much power as Fredo does and yet have no power to stop his own child from hurting. He couldn't simply take Naru's pain away nor could he bring the people his son hold dear to his heart back from the dead. All he could do was let his baby vent and wept.
It made Fredo remember a long forgotten memory.
It was many centuries ago when he was still a child and one of his friends was murdered by the sun god church. He remembers crying for what felt like hours, and his mother tried her best to comfort him.
'Was this how she felt at the time?"
The duke silently entered his office and slumped on his chair with a heavy sigh.
"How is he?"
"Cried until he couldn't anymore, took a quick shower, then I put him to sleep. He will probably wake up with a headache tomorrow."
"I'll tell Melundo to have some medicine on standby."
"Yes, please do." The duke signed and poured some whiskey for himself.
"May this Solena ask what exactly happened?"
In response the duke simply hummed.
"Your grace?"
"Perhaps being in a child's body also make some os his behaviors to be child like... The books did say that children's brains are incapable of completely controlling and self-regulating their emotions."
"So you think that despise mentally being an adult the young master will act like a child?"
"Not always, of course. Knowing him as much as I do, probably only when he reach his limits."
"But that's not healthy."
"I know, Solena." The silver haired vampire said with a sigh and then drunk the whole cup in one go. "I know..."
'How should I even approach this whole situation...?'