Beast, Blue Blood - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

“Don’t you think I pretended to be interested in you?”

Hisha laughed.

“I can tell from Eugene’s reaction. You can’t hide things like dilated pupils or a fast heartbeat.”

“You can hide it. If you train from a young age.”

At Eugene’s firm words, Hisha tilted his head.

“How do you train for something like that?”

“There are many ways. You can maintain your pulse even if you get slapped suddenly or not flail around if you fall into the water.”

Hisha frowned.

“You train children like that?”

Eugene didn’t answer. Then Hisha stood up and gently brushed Eugene’s hair, whispering.

“But you can’t hide dilated pupils or…”

His touch and voice were gentle. Eugene barely suppressed the urge to raise an eyebrow at the tickling sensation.

“Things like trembling breaths.”

Then Hisha brushed Eugene’s cheek with his thumb and whispered.

“Eugene is soft.”

Eugene furrowed her brows a little. Then Hisha kissed the furrowed brow.

“You’ll get wrinkles on your forehead.”

Eugene reflexively deepened the wrinkle on her forehead. Hisha burst into laughter and rubbed the wrinkle.

“Why are you frowning even more?”

Suddenly, Eugene looked at Hisha as if she had discovered something.

“Isn’t your personality a bit different?”

Although it was hard to say he was a completely different person, Young-soo seemed a bit more docile.

“It’s different. I’m just shy.”

Hisha answered indifferently and then asked subtly.

“Do you like Young-soo more?”

To be honest, neither Kim Young-soo nor Hisha Ivanov were to her taste, but Hisha had a cheeky charm that Young-soo didn’t have. Just then, Nasiri’s voice came through the speaker.

[May I come in?]

Eugene turned her head towards the voice, and Hisha’s face turned sullen at the interruption of their good time.

“Come in. And bring a T-shirt, please.”

Eugene stood up and straightened her clothes as she spoke, and Hisha looked like a puppy with drooping ears.

“Are you leaving?”

“I have work.”

Nasiri, who came in, opened the iron door. Eugene stepped outside, took a T-shirt from Nasiri, and handed it to Hisha.

“Stay put.”

Hisha pretended to take the T-shirt through the bars and then grabbed her wrist, pulling her closer. Nasiri flinched but did not intervene.

“Kiss me.”

Hisha’s tone was almost insolent, perhaps defiant as if saying he wouldn’t behave otherwise. Eugene kissed him through the bars. Nasiri quickly looked away.

At some point, Hisha showed possessiveness, wrapping his arm around Eugene’s waist and grabbing one of her buttocks. Without stopping, he kneaded it rhythmically as if they were about to do it again.

Eugene pulled away. Hisha’s red eyes looked anything but satisfied. Eugene caressed Hisha’s cheek as if to tell him to behave. No one else would have gotten away with groping her butt in front of others. She then turned and walked away, but Hisha called her seriously.

“Eugene.”

Eugene turned around. Hisha asked.

“Do you know about Baridegi?”

“No.”

“She’s a character from a Korean myth. Even though her father, King Ogu, abandoned her, she went on a quest to find the elixir of life to save him when he fell ill.”

Eugene showed an interested expression, knowing who Hisha was implying.

“Really? Did Baridegi find the elixir of life?”

“Find out the ending yourself.”

With that, Hisha ended the conversation and sat down. Eugene looked at him briefly before turning to leave.

“Director.”

Nasiri, who had followed, called worriedly.

“Are you planning to have a child with that?”

Eugene turned to her with a blank face.

“Don’t call him ‘that.'”

“But he’s an unknown… entity…”

Nasiri struggled to find the right words to describe Hisha, uncharacteristically hesitant. Eugene sighed slightly, but the sigh was more out of frustration with Nasiri’s slow grasp of the situation than the situation itself.

“Developing a virus itself isn’t necessarily illegal. But if we use a surrogate for the project, that will be illegal.”

Nasiri closed his mouth. No law in any country specifically prohibited the development of the Luax virus. Even MCTC could only send inspectors as a warning. But if there were legal issues in the future, Eugene could argue that her relationship with Hisha had simply progressed. However, suddenly bringing in a surrogate with no prior connection would make it hard to justify that Hisha hadn’t been imprisoned or forced to provide a sample.

Anyway, since they were not a terrorist group, they could not destroy the boundaries of the law and handle things arbitrarily.

Knowing that Nasiri understood, Eugene turned around.

“Prepare the car. We need to go to the lab.”

* * *

On the other hand, looking at the closed door, Hisha murmured.

“But I don’t think I should be doing this right now.”

Then he pulled on the iron bars.

Of course, it didn’t budge. These bars weren’t made of ordinary steel but of a metal strong enough to confine a Luax, a name unknown to Hisha. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have bothered to move him here.

‘Moreover, considering the guards outside, it would be impossible for me to escape alone.’

The other side had specialists trained to deal with Luax, and he was just an ordinary student.

He had learned some self-defense in case of another kidnapping attempt like before. It was only notable that his self-defense instructor was from the special forces.

Above all…

‘If I escape, it will be difficult to meet Eugene.’

Apart from the lack of freedom, being here was like being in paradise, so Hisha’s inner conflict was even more acute. He had to go home, but then it would be hard to be with Eugene as often as now…

‘If I could take Eugene with me, everything would be solved.’

Hisha sighed and thought.

The problem was that such a thing was impossible.

* * *

A black shadow rose over the wall.

When the CCTV detected movement, the shadow twisted its body in the air to avoid the CCTV’s view and landed on the ground. Hands and feet lightly touched the ground, making only a small rustling sound in the bushes.

The CCTV on the wall scanned around 360 degrees as if puzzled, thinking, ‘I definitely saw something?’ But finding nothing, it soon stopped moving.

Only then did the black shadow begin to move, crouching low. It was wearing a black cap, black mask, black jacket, black leggings, and a black backpack. At a glance, it was as agile as a cockroach.

Buzzing.

Sensing a sound approaching from above, the shadow threw itself into the bushes. A surveillance drone flew by, illuminating the ground.

Seeing the surveillance drone disappear through the leaves, Ha-yeon sighed in relief. But immediately, her expression changed as if she was about to curse.

‘Stupid bastard.’

Ha-yeon cursed inwardly.

‘He can’t do anything right. It’s my fault for giving him the task.’

Then Ha-yeon looked toward the mansion. Unseen before, guards surrounded the mansion.

‘Are you a princess trapped in a tower? Do I have to rescue you? I just want to leave you there to rot.’

* * *

In the middle of a high-ceilinged space, there was a wide glass desk with someone sitting in front of it. The person was a woman wearing a leopard print blouse, a black skirt suit, and high heels, with a significantly tall and large frame that didn’t look like an ordinary human woman.

<CEO Selena Chu>

The glass panel in front of the desk read.

At that moment, the automatic door opened, and a young white man in a suit entered.

“CEO.”

When Selena raised her eyes at the call, her beast-like red eyes turned towards the person. Despite her gaze, which would intimidate most people into silence, the young secretary, looking almost too young, spoke without any sign of fear.

“It’s about Director Fuger-Dulloch.”

The name was enough to make anyone stop and listen. Selena put down the pad she was reading.

“Why that witch? She’s been quiet lately.”

“There’s a reason for the quiet. She seems to have a new interest.”

At Jerome’s words, Selena raised her perfectly drawn eyebrows.

“In this chaos of a succession war?”

“I was surprised too.”

Then Jerome looked up at the ceiling.

“Vanessa, show the photos that were sent.”

And he told Selena.

“These are the photos sent by our informant who infiltrated that mansion.”

Photos appeared on the panel on the opposite wall. They were pictures of a man working in a garden or greenhouse, all of them with his head turned or face obscured by objects.

Selena pointed at the photos and looked at her secretary.

“Does our informant get paid for this kind of work?”

Jerome smiled awkwardly.

“He said it was strangely difficult to take a picture of his face. As if he knew where the cameras were. Anyway, it’s a new part-timer at the mansion…”

Selena, looking at the photos with disdain, suddenly said.

“Enlarge the photo to the right, Vanessa.”

The specified photo was enlarged. It was a picture of the part-timer in the greenhouse, wearing a brown shirt and jeans, seen from behind. Selena squinted her eyes.

“That shirt… I’ve seen it before.”

“I have one like that too.”

Jerome said. It was a common checkered shirt that everyone seemed to have at least one of.

“No, but somehow the silhouette…”

Selena murmured. The face wasn’t visible, but the silhouette, which seemed cute and handsome, looked familiar.

Other photos passed by. Silently, Selena watched the photos, none of which showed the face clearly.

“Wow.”

Jerome, who was looking at the photos together, exclaimed.

“I didn’t know she could smile like that.”

Eugene was standing in front of the part-timer, smiling brightly. It was a genuine smile, not a sneer or a mocking smile.

But Selena, looking at the photos with a serious face, did not respond. As the photos continued to pass, Selena suddenly said.

“Wait. Go back.”

The photo went back one frame, showing the part-timer slightly turning his head this way. It was hard to tell, as only a sliver of one eye was visible, but someone who knew the person could recognize him.

“That’s…”

Selena, unable to hide her astonished emotions, spoke.

“Isn’t that Young Master Hisha?”