Purple Scent

Ch. 16: A Baby Violet Harpy

There was suddenly a commotion at the garage, and to make it safe, the other guys closed the garage and guarded there with weapons in case there'll be sudden attack.

"Wow, he looked so cute. What to do?", Hyunki remarked once we saw the small violet harpy at the corner of the garage. I can't help but find him cute, too. He's like, a baby violet harpy. He looked harmless, unlike those of the bigger ones. But still, we have to be careful.

I knelt down and asked as he looked at me while blinking his eyes. He basically looked like a kid with a pair of wings. In difference, the wings he had has no feathers.

"How old are you?", I asked him, and he looked at me before he looked on his small hands and counted with his fingers.

He folded his right thumb, and flashed his hand in front of me before he answered, "Three!". It seems like he miscounted his age and the boys behind me just muttered "aww".

I looked at Heeshik and Soobok in hopes that they would enlighten me with this phenomenon, and it looked like they didn't know either. I looked at dad and he just smiled a fatherly smile and said, "It seems like there's different reaction on the person based on age.", he concluded without any basis.

I said, "But we've seen teens and older but they don't react like this. They couldn't even barely talk." I turned to look at the kid who's on his own world counting from one to three, and the next number was nine.

"So it means if a kid is affected by this, let's say, around his age, the 'violet virus' didn't affect their brains?", I asked him.

He nodded at me and said, "Exactly."

"But, how so?", Kahee asked out of curiosity, and the others were, too.

"So, if we encountered some kids around his age that is affected by the 'violet virus' you called, then they're like, normal kids that just look like violet harpy?", Soljun asked which interrupted Kahee's question. Dad hesitated, but he nodded.

"That's cute.", Doyun and Soljun simultaneously said. I looked at them in amusement. Never knew they had this soft spot. Well, it's not surprising for Doyun since he acts like a kid.

"Actually, there was this study, and few scientist have said that babies were originally born with high IQ. But since we're born like that without any knowledge about anything, the true IQ of each person shows as we grow and learn a lot. I can't give any theoretical statement about this incident, but we'll know soon.", Dad explained and I nodded in understanding.

"The people eat others.", the kid suddenly muttered, as he was patting his lap in some random pattern. I looked at him and he continued, "They left me.", his words were minimal, but it was quite much more for us to understand enough.

"They bad.", he crossed his arms which made the other guys squeal from his cuteness.

He then pat his tummy and pouted, "My tummy is angry. It hurts. I’m hungry.", he said and looked up at me with her twinkling eyes. Should we keep this kid for a while? He looked kinda harmless, and he may be a subject to another discovery about this outbreak. I don't know what will it be, but he may be an answer to some of my questions.

I sighed in defeat and helped him stand, "Okay. Just don't bite us, okay?", I asked playfully and he gasped and shook his head cutely, "No! That's bad!", he said and I nodded in agreement.

"What are you planning?", Heeshik asked, and I just glanced at the kid who's playing with my hair then towards him.

I raised an eyebrow and smiled before I said, "We should keep him, right? Since he was left here alone. Do you expect me to leave this kid behind?", I asked them.

"But, he said he was left here, right? What if Harpies will come here and attack us?", Younghoon asked. He had a point.

I think through and I said, "We shouldn't stay at one place, so I planned to move away later."

"Did you really plan that, or you just came up with a plan right now?", Yowoo teased me, and I swear he got me.

I chuckled a bit and ignored him, saying, "Let's go back and pack up.", I said and lead them the way back inside the house.

Actually, I needed to keep this kid to keep an eye on him. Like I said, he may have the answer to some of the riddles of the cure—if there'll be one—which will help us in time.

When I went inside, I realized Yul stayed inside the house, standing as he leaned against the kitchen counter—it was made with marble—and there's few visible stains which he didn't mind. I pursed my lips when our eyes met. He looked extra attractive in my eyes right now for some reason.

"Should we feed the kid first?", I heard Jaewook asked as I heard them storm inside and carefully locked the door. I nodded and had sit the kid on the couch before I went to the kitchen and tried to make food. But like I said, I tried. My head started to feel pain again I had to hold on the kitchen sink for support.

"You should really take a rest now.", Kahee spoke behind me, which made me turn my head towards her with one of my eyes close since my head really, really hurts. She added, "I'll make the kid some food, take a rest.", she patted me shoulder and I nodded at her.

I went out of the kitchen, only to see the boys were enjoying while they played with the kid. I smiled and looked at my dad, who's writing some things on his notebook again.

I didn't say anything and went upstairs on that room I slept earlier.

I laid there on my bed and curled my body since it's my comfortable position to sleep. I wasn't able to sleep right away, since I had a lot of concerns on my mind.

Will I really become like one of those Harpies? I need to take care of our next plan when I wake up. Thoughts like that. Actually, I am still wondering if the mutation of the virus inside me that I took from the harpy was just taking slow, or if something's stopping it from bypassing the blood brain barrier. Either way, I just want to protect my father, since he's all that I have now. 

And now that I take responsibility for the guys as well as Kahee and that kid, it was much of a burden for me. I just want to live, and protect them.

I rolled around and stared at the ceiling, with the same thoughts running around on my mind. I suddenly heard a knock, which made me turn towards the door.

"My princess," dad called, and I sat up as he didn't plan to walk inside my room. He continued, "are you up for a blood test?"