Interns

Chapter 01: The Newbies

"If you have no further questions, then that's all for today. You should expect to hear from us within a couple of days," said Mr Kim Minseok, wrapping up the job interview. He was quite pleased with this candidate, Naeun, but did not allow himself to show it from his facial expression.

"Thank you, Mr Kim," Naeun replied politely, standing up to bow before shaking hands with Minseok. Naeun herself still found it so surreal that she was here for a job interview at the Conservation Department, an agency under the government. It was an internship, and although it might seem like boring work, it was part of her university program's graduation requirement, so here she was.

She was still nervous and shaking slightly even when she exited the room. Gosh, she needed something to calm herself down. With so much on her mind, she could not focus on anything else other than replaying the interview questions in her head, and how she could have handled them better. How she should have brought up her transferable skills and how she should not have behaved as if handling data was the only thing she was good at. Ugh, what if she screwed it up? What if she had to try her luck elsewhere? And put herself through the nervousness of yet another job interview?

Still deep in thought, she crossed the road without looking both ways. Her nerve-racking thoughts only got interrupted by a blaring car horn, getting increasingly loud as it approached with speed. But by the time she figured out that the vehicle was neither slowing down nor swerving lanes, it was already too late.

~

She could not be saved. No doctor could bring back the dead. Except maybe for Doctor Do Kyungsoo. He was not just any doctor. He was...undead.

A vampire doctor.

It was no secret among the supernatural community that vampire blood had healing properties when ingested by a human. Naeun had lost consciousness but Doctor Do had managed to feed his blood to her before she bled to death entirely. He did so with skill, considering it was not the first time he had saved a life this way.

It was also no secret, however, that if a human should die with vampire blood in their system, then they would transition into a vampire too.

And so, Doctor Do took a seat and waited patiently — heck, he was immortal. If he had anything at all, it would be time. He wanted to be there for Naeun when she woke up, so he could explain to her what was going on, and help her through the transition. Yet he was also hungry and he did not want to waste the food that was her blood, so he wiped a finger across her blood and licked a dab off it. But that was already enough to make him want to throw up.

"Angel blood?!" Doctor Do spat and gasped at the realization of what he had put in his mouth, coughing violently and trying to get it out of his system. Angel blood was poison to vampires and he was not ready to die yet.

As soon as he had caught his breath, he had to sit right back down, still feeling dizzy. He was wondering how in the world Naeun could be a mortal human — clearly medically dead — yet have angel blood running in her veins.

As he had never dealt with a patient like her before, he was wary that a creature (at this point he did not even know what she was anymore) like her could harm him. He decided that he could not risk his safety to stay with her throughout her transition, so he cleaned her up and sent her to the relevant ward for rehabilitation. She was going to have to figure things out on her own.

~

Meanwhile in Hell...knock knock.

"Come in," drawled the young demon lazily, without so much as sparing a glance at the door. His flippant attitude contrasted starkly with the stern expression on the face of the elder demon, Yifan, who had just entered the room.