KANG DAE

As a mixed-blood, half-vampire resulting from the sin of a human omega and a pure alpha vampire; a dhampir, I’ve been chased and hated by many, rocks and curses were thrown at me since I was very young, abandoned by the woman who birthed me and with no idea who my alpha progenitor was. I worked as a slave and stole food and other things to survive until he appeared. Bernard McRaytan, an aristocrat, a pure alpha vampire, took me under his wing, saw over my nature, saw my potential, and used my abilities for his business. At first, I was against the things he wanted me to do, but as long as I could come back to a warm bed and food, I had no problem getting my hands dirty.

Vampires were provided with blood packs from the government, while some of them accepted them, others had preferences and that was where the McRaytans got involved with blood trafficking. My job was simple: locate the target, capture them, and bring them back home. No harming the target unless they fought back and had to be taken by force. Supernatural beings mostly, their blood tasted better, but rare cases also involved hunting humans. 

As I grew up and got stronger I became my master’s best hunter, but then that happened. Master Bernard passed away, he was betrayed and murdered by someone close to him, his own blood, his son, Jackson. The reason? He wanted his position, his power, to rule the coven and get all his riches for himself, and even though I didn’t like him, he became my new master. As time passed, he grew on me, we became friends, and named me his right-hand man, but now he was gone too and I was free to do anything I wanted, but the need to avenge Jackson’s death as my last mission for his family was on my mind and that’s what brought me here, to Bramville where it all started. 

It was unclear to me who had killed him, but Bramville and that merman he was obsessed with were my only lead, I needed to infiltrate the town and the moment I saw an ad where they were looking for a new police officer, I knew it was destiny so I took it. While for the McRaytan’s, I had worked as an officer for one of my missions, I had the experience needed for the job and my skills were good enough to be accepted, and for my living quarters I had found a good spacious apartment; the building was not close to the station but since it was a small town the walking distance was not that bad. 

When I had arrived the night before my apartment was already furnished, I had woken up in the morning and unpacked the rest of my things. The apartment was way too nice for the price it had, it was big enough for two people to live in it. The kitchen was spacious, as was the living room, which connected to a small balcony separated by sliding glass doors. There were two doors in the living room, one that led to the room and the other one led to a bathroom. The room was also big, fitting my king-sized bed, my desk, and a built-in closet, it also had a door that led to a private bathroom. 

Moving to a new place meant having neighbors to impress, I had to put a good name for myself, and what better way to introduce myself than to give them a gift, something simple but delicious; sweet rice cakes. I had learned to make them from an old lady that I met back when I had a mission in Jeju-do a while ago.

Knocking on a door on the top floor an old lady opened it, she looked at me curious.

“Hello ma’am, my name is Kang Dae Kim. I just moved to apartment 401 and I wanted to introduce myself.” I said with a smile and gave her a plate of the rice cakes I had prepared. “I prepared these homemade rice cakes as a gift.”

“Such a handsome young man. Are you single? I would love to introduce you to my grandchild.” She received the plate with a smile and looked at me curious, waiting for me to answer.

“Yes ma’am. I’m single but I’m not interested in dating at the moment. I want to focus on my work.” I firmly said it was not a lie that my main focus in this town was to complete my mission. 

“A hardworking man too, tell me if you change your mind and I’ll introduce you to her.” She smiled welcoming me to the neighbor and then closed her door, while I continued to deliver the rice cakes.

It took me a while, it was a six-floor building, each floor with 4 apartments, but since work starts tomorrow, I had time to kill. Just missing the apartment next to mine, I knocked on the door and waited for a second, but got no response. I knocked again, but still no response. ‘Maybe they are not home.’ I left the plate on the floor next to the door, with a sticky note telling them about me being a new neighbor and the rice cakes being a present to introduce myself and as I was done, I decided to go back inside my flat and think of a strategy for my mission.

RAINBOW

Since the beginning of time weddings have always been events full of joy, the union of two people who truly loved each other enough to want to spend the rest of their lives together. For some, it’s just a formality since a mating bond will always be stronger, but for me, it’s a way to form a stronger bond, to make the relationship official to the whole world, a happy day to celebrate love. 

Love…

Something I’ve always been unlucky with, all my relationships ended up being bad experiences. Well most of them, Byron was the only good one, but does it count? We only dated for a month. Talking about my other “relationships”, if there was a Guinness record for how many times someone could get cheated on I think I’ll have the title, multiple times I walked in on my “boyfriends” in bed with other people; even in my own house, and others just used me for my money or my body. Although love was something I was unlucky with, that didn’t mean I didn’t want a relationship, I always dreamed of finding my fated mate but I was also scared about it.

What if it was not a good person? What if he didn’t want me? What if he rejected me? A thousand questions filled my mind every time I thought of finding them. Papa Jamie told me when I got my first heat that an alpha would come for me one day and he would accept me and love all of me, just like Daddy Layton did with him. To this day I believed him and I knew it was close, that smell of chocolate that hit me the other night was a sign of it, my mate was close. 

‘And we should look for them.’ Vivi, my animal self, said excitedly in my mind. ‘I hope they are handsome, I wonder if they are big down there too.’ 

‘Vivi, boo. Stop being so horny. You are distracting me.’ I scolded him, getting a huff back from him.

And done! I lifted the photo album in the air admiring it, white leather with flower details along the cover and golden fancy letters in the middle that read ‘Byron and Julien’. Arranging the albums was always my favorite part of the job and I think that this one was my best work. I took many photos that day so it was a big one too, but it was worth it because it turned out gorgeous, an excellent compilation of both the ceremony and party. ‘Julien’s going to love it.’ 

I put the album down and gathered my stuff, it was time to go home. I was drained after pulling an all-nighter to finish the album so I could give it to them this week. On my way home I stopped by the mini-market to buy some snacks to eat before going to bed. Sunday nights were calm in the town of Bramville, it was the end of the weekend. 

When I got off the elevator of the apartment building I walked to my door and noticed something lying on the floor. It was a plate covered in plastic, brown sweet rice cakes; they smelled delicious. Picking it up I read the note that was on top of it.

‘Hello, I moved in next door and wanted to give you these homemade sweet rice cakes as a gift. I look forward to being neighbors.’ 

I smiled and looked at the door of the flat next to mine, I knew someone moved in due to the noises coming from the moving team arranging the furniture, but I’m glad that my new neighbor seemed nice; the last one was way too noisy and always fought with his boyfriend until late hours, then they would make up and I always heard their moans and groans, those were the times I hated having enhanced hearing.

After walking inside my house and taking a well-deserved shower I got hungry and looked at the plate that I left on the kitchen counter on my way in. I was curious about the dessert that my neighbor gave me. After taking the plastic off I took one of the cakes to my mouth and I got transported to heaven. 

“Oh my fucking god/dess!” I shouted, feeling like my mouth was about to orgasm due to how good these sweet rice cakes were.

It was sweet, but not a bad one, a good sweet and not at all cloying, the perfect amount of sweetness. Chewy, but a soft texture to chew on, perfect for teeth of all ages; If I could marry them I would. Mental note to myself, when I get the chance, I have to thank them and maybe ask for the recipe.

Finishing the whole plate in one sitting got me sad and wanting more, but it was time for bed, time to rest from all the work I pulled out this week.