NTH 120

“How long will I have to live in this place? I want to go to a big town, even if I have to be a servant. If there is such a thing as a next life, I hope I’m born into a well-off family then. I don’t need to be a noble, but I think I would have nothing more to wish for if I could just eat my fill at every meal.”

The fox stayed still, its ears drooping. Chaewoo, smiling sheepishly, gently stroked the fox’s back.

“Were you cast out from your pack for being a freak? Because your fur is a different color and you have two tails?”

Chaewoo tried to imagine if he had a child and it was green all over or had four arms. Even if it were a baby, he thought it would feel a bit like a monster, and that the child would be pointed at or receive looks full of disgust wherever it went. Though it would be his own precious baby, he wasn’t confident that he wouldn’t be secretly afraid.

This fox might have been treated that way by its pack and chased out.

But thinking about it differently, being born this way was by no means the fox’s fault for having done something wrong. When one is born looking far outside the bounds of what its group considers common sense, the one who would be most wronged and grief-stricken would be none other than the individual themself.

“I don’t know how you look in the eyes of other foxes, but to me, you are very pretty. Your fur is shiny, your face is cute, and your tails seem fine now that I’ve been looking at them. So what if there are two? If one gets hurt or falls off, you still have the other one, so isn’t that even better?”

Chaewoo laughed unaffectedly. The fox seemed to be making a sneering face, but Chaewoo did not notice it.

That night, a full moon rose. Chaewoo dreamed of making love with someone whose body was white and whose smile was dazzlingly poignant. The partner was, surprisingly, not a woman, but a handsome young man with a slender waist and a flat chest. Chaewoo greedily coveted him like a madman before his eyes flew open.

Although he had vaguely thought about meeting a good woman and starting a family, he had never once yearned for a man, so Chaewoo had no idea at all why he had dreamed such a dream. The face of the man from the dream had already blurred, and not even a part of it remained in his memory.

The only thing that was vivid amidst it all was his own member in his lower regions, which was still throbbing. Still half-asleep, Chaewoo lowered his trousers under the blanket. With his hyung-nims gone, there was nothing to hold him back. Grasping the hot, hard, stone-like shaft in his hand and shaking it fiercely, he tried to recall the fairy-like person from his dream.

Who in the world could it be? He had never met anyone so beautiful. A fine jawline, lips as lovely as flowers, soft and white skin, a petite nose bridge, elegant movements, a radiant smile, the honest body that had opened for him…

“Ah, heu-eut…”

Before long, the signal of climax arrived. His body going limp at the end of a long release, Chaewoo was gasping for breath when he suddenly heard a person’s voice from behind him.

“Hmph, for a man, you do everything you’re supposed to do.”

Startled, Chaewoo, who hadn’t even pulled up his pants, shot up into a sitting position. Leaning against the wall, a pretty-faced boy who looked to be five or six years old with long, slanted eyes was watching him. Chaewoo flailed his feet, trying to back away as if he had seen a ghost.

“Who, who, who…”

“I understand perfectly well that your member is impressive, so put on your clothes first.”

Chaewoo hurriedly pulled up the pants that had slid down to his ankles and tied the waistband. The boy, wrapped in Chaewoo’s jeogori, had a bandage wrapped around his ankle. Chaewoo’s eyes grew as round as saucers.

“You, p-p-perhaps, th-th-the, f-f-fox…?”

“How rude. Not a fox, but a gumiho.”

“A g-g-gumiho?”

“Stop stuttering. It’s distracting. I’m thirsty, so fetch me some water.”

At the gumiho’s words, who commanded him as if it were a matter of course, Chaewoo dazedly got up and went outside. The day was already beginning to break with a faint light.

When he brought water in a bowl and handed it to the child who called himself a gumiho, the one who drank it sweetly said arrogantly.

“You must have held a beautiful woman in your dreams.”

“No, more importantly, what are you talking about, a gumiho… You’re really saying you’re that white fox…?”

His manner of speech and the aura he exuded were unusual, and he himself claimed to be a gumiho, but Chaewoo couldn’t suddenly bring himself to use honorifics with someone who looked like a young child, so his words trailed off.

The baby gumiho made a face that was a smirk, with one corner of his mouth raised.

“That’s right.”

“Then how did you get so hurt?”

“I was being chased by a hunter and fell off a cliff. I ran for my life and lost consciousness in the bushes, and when I came to, I was here. I was also short on yang energy, so I was on the verge of disappearing, you see.”

“What do you mean, short on yang energy?”

“A monster, which is the crystallization of yin energy, needs yang energy to live in the human world, and if it’s lacking, it loses its power.”

“H-h-how can you, replenish yang energy…?”

With a sense of foreboding, Chaewoo became tense. The gumiho gave a ghastly smile without a word. Even though it was the face of a child with round, cute cheeks, it was so frightening that it felt like the hair on his head was standing on end.

“It’s best to get it from a human, a young man overflowing with yang energy at that. For instance, by taking out and eating their raw liver…”

“Eek, uwaaah!!!”

Before the child’s words could even finish, Chaewoo let out a terrified scream. He scooted back on his bottom so much that he looked like he would break through the wall with his back, and seeing this, the child cackled.

“You gave me bean porridge yesterday, and more importantly, you caught a rat for me, and I was able to replenish a decent amount with that, so don’t you worry too much.”

It seemed that even if it wasn’t a person, one could gain yang energy by consuming things from the mortal world as food. Only then did Chaewoo finally relax and let out a big breath.

“You’re a gumiho, but why do you have two tails? Not nine…”

Chaewoo asked cautiously, glancing at the child. As a sense of relief that he wouldn’t be eaten right away set in, he grew curious about this being called a monster, which he was encountering for the first time in his life. The child answered with a displeased expression.

“It’s because I haven’t fully grown yet. They don’t have nine tails from birth.”

“How old are you now?”

“I haven’t counted, so I don’t know exactly. I’m probably over a hundred.”

“A hundred years old? You looked so small and young? Even now, you look like a child…”

“You can’t compare a monster’s lifespan to that of a mere human. We have to be at least three hundred years old for all nine tails to grow in. We can also transform freely then.”

“So for now, you can only transform into your current form?”

As if something had offended him, the child, scowling deeply, pouted his lips.

“Even in this form, I can easily eat someone like you. I can also kill you or drive you insane.”

He seemed to feel he was being looked down on because of his child-like appearance. Perhaps because he was a monster, he was petty and not very generous for his age. Chaewoo waved his hand with a faint smile.

“I wasn’t trying to look down on you because you look like a child. I was just trying to confirm something.”

“Confirm what?”

“What you can and cannot do. That way, I can protect you better from people.”

“Why would someone like you protect me?”

“You’re hurt. You have to be careful until you’re all healed. What if you get chased and fall off a cliff again?”

The child flared up and clenched his fists tightly. He shouted at Chaewoo in a shrill voice, as if interrogating him.

“Are you daring to look down on me right now? It seems you want to die this instant, don’t you?”

“That’s not it. You also need a servant to catch rats and fetch water for you. So I was saying that if you’re going to keep me alive and have me attend to you, it would be better for you to tell me a few things about yourself.”

The child was still fuming, but he didn’t particularly rebut, as it seemed even he thought Chaewoo’s words were right. Still with an angry face, he spoke in a subdued voice.

“Then first, attend to my bath.”

The sun hadn’t even fully risen, and he wanted his bath attended to. Surprised, Chaewoo’s eyes widened.

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

“Your wound probably hasn’t healed yet?”

“Thanks to you smearing this and that on it, it smells awful and my body feels grimy. If you don’t wash me now, I’ll immediately show you just how big your liver is.”

Chaewoo was dumbfounded, but he had no choice. It wasn’t just because of the gumiho’s command; he was originally kind-hearted and gentle, so he couldn’t refuse others’ requests well.

Going outside, Chaewoo boiled water and rinsed a wooden tub cleanly. Since it was a child with a small body, a moderately sized tub was sufficient.

After mixing the boiled water with cold water to achieve a warm temperature and adding a handful of medicinal mugwort, Chaewoo opened the door and spoke to the child.

“It’s ready, so come out here.”

The child, who was sitting against the wall hugging his knees, looked at him with a shameless face.

“How can I walk when I’ve injured my leg?”

“Ah, right. Of course. I’ll carry you.”

“Hmph. How stupid.”

Chaewoo, who had gone into the room, carefully lifted the child. It seemed that after transforming into a human, he had no clothes and had arbitrarily picked up and worn Chaewoo’s jeogori that was in the room; like a long overcoat, it covered his whole body and still had enough left over to drag on the floor. He was bigger than when he was a fox, but still, he was just a child, so light it felt like he would blow away.

Once outside, Chaewoo removed the jeogori and put the child into the steaming tub. The child winced slightly, perhaps because water touched the wound, but he looked more pleased to be able to wash.

The child was so thin his ribs showed, and in the middle of it all, he had the cute symbol of a male attached to the center of his body. Chaewoo thought it would be terribly unfair if he lived for a hundred years and his member was only that size. Chaewoo barely managed to hold back the laughter that was about to escape at the thought of how cute the child was.

“Are you a male?”

As he scooped water with his large hand and poured it over the child’s shoulder, he asked, and the child nodded indifferently. Chaewoo, worried the wound might get worse, unwrapped the bandages around the child’s ankle and torso.

“I always thought all gumihos were female. I heard they eat men’s livers.”

“If I had to eat one, a man’s is better since it has more yang energy. Men wander around the mountains alone well, so it’s easy to disguise myself as a woman and bewitch them. I don’t necessarily have to eat them; I can also just couple with them and suck out their energy, and even in that case, it’s much easier to tempt a man who is fond of women than a suspicious woman.”

“I see. Hey, by any chance, have you ever eaten a person?”

At Chaewoo’s question, the child answered coolly.

“This form is the limit of what I can transform into. I might get eaten, but who would offer their liver to a brat like this?”

Greatly relieved by those words, Chaewoo washed the child’s hair with the mugwort-infused water. After the bath was over, he brought a clean cloth and held it out toward the child.

“If the wound opens up, it will take a long time to heal, so it’s probably best you get out now.”

Although it was a short bath, he was sufficiently refreshed, so the child obediently draped the cloth over himself and let himself be held in Chaewoo’s arms.

Chaewoo, who had carried him back to the room and dried him, carefully examined the child’s wounds. Aside from the ankle that had been sprained and was swollen from the fall off the cliff, he could see marks where something sharp had grazed him here and there.

“How did you get these wounds?”

As he applied medicinal paste to the child’s wounds, he asked, and after a moment’s hesitation, the child reluctantly opened his mouth.

“A hunter shot an arrow coated in poison. I tried my best to avoid it, but it seems it grazed me in several places.”

“What? Poison? Are you okay?”

Startled, Chaewoo paused the hand that was preparing bandages. Whether the claim of being a hundred years old was true or not, the child did not make a fuss at all.

“It has already seeped in and caused internal injuries, so I’m trying to purify it myself. It’s easier to treat when I’m in my original form, so I stayed in that form all day yesterday.”

“Then why did you go through the trouble of transforming instead of staying like that?”

“I wanted to wash, but I can’t speak to you in that form, can I?”

Chaewoo, who was contemplating what to dress the child in, looked into the child’s eyes and said firmly.

“Then turn back into your original form right now.”

The child shot Chaewoo a suspicious look.

“Why?”

“You said it’s easier to treat yourself in that form. The hyung-nims who live here with me have gone to sell medicinal herbs and won’t be back for a while. At least until then, stay comfortably in your original form and heal your body. I’ll catch you a big rat every day.”