Noctura

twenty nine

seunghoon

SHE'S SITTING at a table near the back. She's got her head resting on her chin and she's gazing down at a paper menu in front of her. She's chewing on her bottom lip in a nervous but cute kind of way.

I approach the table and stand there a moment. "Evening, Teagan."

She looks up at me and a nervous smile settles on her face. "Oh, Seunghoon, hello. How are you doing?"

"Good," I tell her as I sit down across from her. "I'm doing really good. How about you? How are you doing?"

She gives me another small smile, but it seems a little too forced. "I'm fine."

"You look beautiful," I compliment. She's wearing a nice shirt and pants, probably what she wore to work. She still looks beautiful, nonetheless.

"Ah, thank you," she says kindly.

"I got you these," I tell her as I show her the small bouquet of lavender roses.

She reaches over and takes the bouquet, examining the roses. Her smile grows a bit wider, but it still isn't the genuine Teagan smile I've come to know.

She looks up at me. "Thank you so much, Seunghoon. They're lovely."

I smile back at her. "So, what is this place? I've never been here before."

She glances around at the restaurant while she sets the roses down on the table, out of the way. "Oh, well, I've only been here a couple times but every time I've come it's been wonderful. I hope you like Italian."

"Of course," I say. "So, I have to ask. What made you go into work early just so we could eat dinner together tonight?"

Teagan takes a deep breath. "Look, Seunghoon, I don't want you to get the wrong idea or anything. I just... I needed to talk to you about something important."

"It's so important that you had to go into work early?" I grin at her.

She sighs. "Seunghoon, it's—"

"Hello, and welcome to Giuseppe's. My name is Jaak and I'll be your server tonight. Can I start you off with any drinks?"

Teagan and I both look up at our server and give friendly smiles.

"I think I'll just have some water," Teagan says.

"I'll do the same," I tell the server. "And can we get a bottle of red wine? Your best one."

The server smiles and nods. "I'll be right back with those drinks."

Once he leaves, I turn back to Teagan. "I'm sorry, you were saying?"

Teagan takes a deep breath. "I want to talk to you about the Alliance, Seunghoon. I want to talk about Yoon."

"So, work," I mutter. "Got it."

She sighs. "I'm sorry, I didn't want you to get the wrong impression, but I needed you to come out here tonight. Yoon spoke to me."

My eyes widen. "What?"

Teagan nods. "He came up to me last night during work. He made me go outside in the back with him and he gave me instructions. He told me about something, Seunghoon."

"What? What did he say?"

"He said... he said he wants me to find some things out about the AAN. About if they're experimenting on humans to turn them into Nocturas."

I am stunned into silence as I realize the true meaning of Teagan's words.

Turning humans into Nocturas?