"P-please, please..."
He leaned in closer, "I thought you wanted to hear my french?"
She could feel his breath on the back of her neck, she shook her head hurriedly, "No no no."
"Not a word of this to Ari. Am I, clear?"
She nodded.
She heard him turn around, washing his hands, not daring to move.
"What will you tell her, about your little test?"
He knows... "I," she kept facing the door, "I will just tell her that you are not fazed by me at all."
"Good."
Lyna remained silent. "You're not just an S rank. Why Ari?"
She heard him turn off the sink.
"Because she is a special person to me."
Special, person? She asked herself.
She heard him walk up behind her. "The reasons I am letting you leave here alive, is because you stood up for her when nobody did, and lastly, your death will devastate her. So never use your powers on me, the poking is annoying."
Lyna let go of the door handle. "I understand."
She felt the pressure disappear.
"What are you waiting for?" He asked.
She woke up from the trance, "Oh," she opened the door for him in frustration.
He didn't look at her again and walked ahead, and just as he stepped outside the door Lyna's words stopped him.
"If," she said.
He stood there, waiting for her to speak.
"If I didn't use my powers," her bright blue eyes were looking at the ground.
He slowly turned around, facing her with her tall stature.
She raised her head to meet his cold, sleepy gray eyes. And as if the lights around her dimmed, they shone so brightly from her view, they had a beautiful, transcendent glow to them.
"Would you have looked at me?" The world paused as she finished her sentence, yet she could feel her heart, beating crazily, gradually she could even hear it.
Ba-dump.
Ba-dump.
His calm eyes looked down, at her body, at her chest, at her heart, staring coldly not saying a word.
Lyna's heart skipped a beat as she swallowed her breath. Those fucking eyes...
His eyes slowly returned to meet hers. "You can't compare to her," then turned around and left.
Lyna was left standing there blankly. "I can't?" Her legs were shaking at this man's cold demeanor and words, bringing shivers down her entire body. This was different, that anything she had seen before, anything, she had experienced, before.
She hurriedly followed him and started walking beside him.
He didn't care nor look at her and kept walking ahead.
She nervously stole a glance at him before doing the same.
They rejoined Ari, who was left alone in the room.
The table was full with the first course.
"Did we take long?" Joked around Lyna as she sat in front of Ari.
Ari looked at her, waiting for some sign to know what happened. She didn't know why but both of them coming back at the same time brought her more anxiousness than when they had left her, adding on Lyna being nonchalant about the signs.
She turned to look at Kale, who was already looking at her.
"Is there something you are worried about?"
"No," she shook her head shyly. "Nothing."
Lyna was surprised he bluntly asked her. Does he, not want her to misunderstand?
"By the way, if it weren't for Kale I would have got into the men's bathroom, thank you for helping me," she faced Kale after shaking her head to Ari, giving her the signal.
Kale didn't answer and looked over the food.
Ari felt relieved.
Wait, relieved? Why am I relieved, that he didn't make a move on her? She asked herself.
She suddenly held her cheeks as they felt hot. "Ehem," she coughed before she started eating out of frustration.
Lyna on the other hand used this chance to look at Kale, who didn't mind her. She noticed that she started zoning out while doing so, but she couldn't take her eyes off him.
He slowly put the knife from his right hand near her. Her eyes fell on his veiny hand, as he gently tapped twice on the table close to her plate before going back to eating again, signaling to her to focus.
Her eyes remained on where he tapped and her food.
Ari didn't see this interaction as she was still confused about her feelings.
Lyna's eyes looked a bit down, as she raised the fork to grab a bite.
The meal was quiet for a moment. When they reached dessert Kale suddenly stood up.
"I will be waiting outside," he said leaving without waiting for an answer.
"Wait, Kale," called out Ari but he had already closed the door behind him.
"Don't," said Lyna. "He decided to leave us alone, we haven't spoken much since we sat. It's only going to make him more uncomfortable sitting in this silence."
Ari could only nod to her words while looking at the door for a few seconds. She suddenly turned her head. "What actually happened by the way?"
Lyna sighed, "He was mad at me for using my powers on him."
Ari's eyes widened, "He noticed?"
Lyna nodded.
"But, isn't that ability innate in your family and can't be detected? Aren't those senses, one of the things your lineage is proud of?"
"Yeah, we are more like a higher species, those senses of ours are but a trait, whether I like it or not I hear the heartbeats of people around me and be sensitive, with the training I can turn it down or focus on a specific target, but for him to notice that..."
Wait, Lyna's eyes suddenly widened, didn't call her a descendant of the beast?
Ari was quiet for a while, before Lyna suddenly said, "I also think, he may know my grandfather."
"What?"
"He knows I am of his lineage."
Ari was stricken with surprises.
Lyna couldn't bring herself to tell her friend about the latter part they had, nor about the fact that even if he knew of her family, he called her species, a dog.
"I think I will have to call my grandfather right now, to check. The earlier the better."
Ari could only nod.
Ring.
---
Ring.
France, Île-de-France, in a huge mansion.
The stature of a tall and massively built old man was standing in front of a big window with a view over a garden, slowly taking the cigar, which looked too small in his fingers from his lips.
The room was quiet, other than the ringing of his phone on the desk.
"I believe this is the call I am expecting," he said in a growling deep voice. His lips were not speaking Korean yet, every word he said turned out to be.
He slightly turned his head, and his eyes fell on the chair behind him, where the shadow of a young man was sitting like a king, his purple earring glowing brightly.
"I will take care of it," said the old man as he stroked his white beard.
The shadow disappeared without a word.
The old man stood there, not answering yet, sighing.
He held the cigar tightly before pressing on the call.