NTH 83

“I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. It’s just that seeing your sweater reminded me of my clothes that were stolen by that devil, CEO Cheon. That’s why I said it, I was just so upset.”

Jin spoke in a dispirited voice, putting on the gentlest expression he could muster. It was to calm Carrot down and lower his guard. It seemed to have some effect; Carrot, who had been fuming, hesitated for a moment, then grumbled as if he were being very generous.

“Damn it, you should know that I’m letting this slide because it’s me. If it had been any of the other hyung-nims, you would’ve definitely had that rag-like blanket taken away too.”

“Thanks. If you’re good enough to work under CEO Cheon, you must be a pretty good fighter, so you’ve probably never been stripped naked like me, right? You have no idea how humiliating this is for me right now.”

As Jin spoke sullenly, Carrot replied in a much calmer voice.

“Why would I not have? I’ve been through all sorts of things to get to where I am in this line of work.”

“Really? You must have had a pretty tough life, too. Hey, have you eaten? Do you want to share this bread?”

“What’s with the sudden change of tune? It’s suspicious.”

Carrot glared at Jin with suspicious eyes, who had suddenly become docile. Sitting up weakly, Jin wrapped the blanket around his naked body.

“I’ve been lying here for days with no phone or TV, so I’m bored out of my mind. I’m at the point where I’ll forget how to talk. Can’t you just chat with me for a bit? Do you have to get back up to the office quickly?”

“The office closed ages ago. Because of you, I’m the only one who couldn’t go home, damn it. The hyung-nims told me to watch you until the CEO gets here as they were leaving, and the CEO himself said he might be late because he had to go somewhere far today. Talk about bad luck, shit.”

Carrot grumbled, mixing in curses. Thanks to his complaints, Jin was able to get some useful information.

Since the office was closed, no more customers would be coming in. Cheon Sagang’s lackeys had all gone home, and the only one left was Carrot. Cheon Sagang probably wouldn’t be back for a while, either.

It was a now-or-never opportunity. Jin dangled his long, slender legs off the side of the bed.

“Sorry you have to deal with this because of me. But I’m glad you’re the one who stayed. The other misters are so grim and scary, but you look around my age, and you don’t have any tattoos, so you’re less intimidating.”

Carrot, who had been staring at Jin’s white, smooth legs for a moment, scowled.

“Damn it, what do you mean I don’t have tattoos? I have them too, you know?”

“Really? I don’t see any.”

“If you can’t see them, does that just mean they don’t exist? You’re so dumb. I have them on both sides, from here to here.”

Carrot puffed out his chest and pointed from his shoulder blade down to just above his wrist. Jin’s eyes widened, his face filled with anticipation.

“I’m curious what kind of art it is. Can you show me?”

“Tch. You’re being annoying.”

With the corner of his mouth turning up slightly, Carrot took off his sweater and the T-shirt he was wearing underneath it at the same time, completely baring his torso. As he’d said, both of his arms were covered in tattoos. They weren’t animals like dragons, snakes, or hawks like gangsters usually had, but were densely packed with complex patterns resembling the face of a clock and large rose blossoms.

“Wow, I’ve never seen tattoos like these before. They’re sexy, you know?”

As Jin looked them over and exclaimed in admiration, Carrot put on a smug expression.

“Right? The hyung who did this for me said he designed it himself to suit me especially.”

“It really suits you. But you have a better body than you look. Your muscles are cool, too. Do you work out or something?”

“Well, you know, just some simple weight training?”

“Can I touch your bicep just once? It’s okay since we’re both guys, right?”

When Jin blinked his eyes, Carrot gave him a lewd look.

“This bastard is asking for a lot of service today, huh? Then does that mean I can touch yours too?”

“I don’t have any muscles, so there’s probably nothing to touch.”

“I don’t care. It has to be fair.”

Carrot’s gaze fell upon Jin’s stark white nape and collarbone, revealed between the folds of the blanket. Reading the lust in his eyes, Jin slowly lowered the blanket to his waist.

“Okay. Let’s be fair and touch each other. Come over here and sit down.”

Carrot’s eyes gleamed as he approached the bed and sat on the edge next to Jin. Jin turned his body and gently caressed his bicep with his delicate, slender fingers, making him flinch.

“Damn it, why are your hands so cold?”

“I have a naturally low body temperature. Wow, your bicep is so firm.”

“Shit, that tickles. Then I’m touching you too, okay?”

Carrot hesitated like a virgin about to spend his first night with a lover, then placed his palm on Jin’s shoulder. As his hand swept down the line of Jin’s shoulder, Jin wrapped his arm around his neck, pulled him closer, and slowly lay back on the bed.

“My body’s gotten cold again. It’s chilly. Hold me and warm me up.”

Pulled down by Jin, Carrot lowered his body and urgently forced his tongue past Jin’s lips, rubbing his flat chest. When Jin let out a faint, suggestive moan, Carrot’s groin swelled in an instant. As if frustrated, he undid the buckle of his pants, unzipped them, and threw his clothes off in a flash.

Jin laid Carrot down on the bed, climbed on top of his stomach, and whispered in his ear.

“I’ll make you feel good. Close your eyes.”

When Carrot obediently closed his eyes as he was told, Jin pretended to kiss him while sliding his hand down to caress his nape. The moment the excited Carrot let out a ragged breath, Jin summoned every last ounce of his strength and squeezed his carotid arteries with both hands.

“Kuh, ugh…!”

Carrot’s eyes bulged as if they would pop out, and the blood vessels in them became bloodshot. Carrot’s fingernails scratched Jin’s forearm so hard that they dug into his flesh, but Jin, while wincing in pain, did not loosen his grip.

“You son of a…, I’ll, kill…!”

Carrot, who had been spitting out curses between his teeth, soon rolled his eyes back from lack of oxygen and collapsed onto the pillow with a thud.

“How dare a half-formed little anchovy like you look at someone like that. I feel like throwing up.”

After confirming that Carrot was completely unconscious, Jin quickly picked up his own clothes and put them on. He took the necklace from Carrot’s neck, put only the pendant in his pants pocket, and didn’t forget to drop his cell phone in the toilet and flush it.

Jin tore Carrot’s underwear, which was rolling around on the floor, and used it to tie his hands tightly. He did at least offer one last act of kindness by placing the blanket over his naked body.

After rinsing his mouth out several times in the small bathroom, Jin put on the sneakers Jeha had bought him and carefully went up to the first floor. He found his padded jacket hanging on a coat rack in a corner of the office, quickly put it on, and zipped it up to his neck.

Jin cut all the telephone lines in the office with scissors. It was to prevent Carrot from contacting Cheon Sagang in case he woke up. Since he had taken all his clothes and his cell phone, it would be difficult for him to go outside the office to make a call.

As he unlocked the door and left the office, the sub-zero air rushed into Jin’s lungs.

Letting out a rough cough, Jin pulled the hood of his padded jacket over his head and began to walk quickly down the street, which was shrouded in deep darkness.

Jeha sat on the main wooden floor of Gu Minho’s house and looked down at the wide, moonlit courtyard.

A raccoon skin, lent to him by Hwon, was draped over his shoulders. As long as he wore that skin, the spirits would perceive Jeha as a raccoon spirit, same as Hwon. Jeha tied the strings attached to the skin tightly in front of his neck to make sure it wouldn’t come loose.

When the new year began after midnight, many spirits came to pay their respects to Gu Minho. Some came through the main gate like humans, while others passed through the walls, rose up from under the ground, or flew in from the sky.

Gu Minho had manifested in his true form with nine tails. It was the first time Jeha had seen him like that since they first met some nine hundred years ago. Of course, his body was now dozens of times larger than it was back then. With his mystical appearance of mixed white, blue, and silver, he was even larger than the traditional Korean house he resided in.

Hwon had returned to his true form as a raccoon spirit and was receiving gifts brought by the guests and giving them return gifts one by one. The return gift was a beautiful pearl that resembled a fox marble. It was as large as Jeha’s fist. Gu Minho had imbued it with his divine power, so it was said that possessing it would help spirits avoid the misfortunes they might face in the human world.

The sight of various strangely-shaped spirits offering gifts and greetings to Gu Minho and receiving return gifts from Hwon truly looked like a human’s eightieth birthday celebration. Jeha forgot his worries for a moment and watched with interested eyes.

“Mr. Raccoon, I smell a human somewhere.”

“Could it be that a human is hiding in secret?”

“Can we find it and eat it?”

A bird spirit called a three-headed hawk, with one body and three heads, asked with gleaming eyes. It was in the middle of receiving a pearl from Hwon with its beak and putting it into each of the three pouches around its neck. Because it had three heads, it also had three mouths, so its characteristic was speaking three times as much as others.

Spirits did not use vocal cords and tongues but communicated by vibrating sound waves, so their mouths did not move even when they spoke.

“It must be the lingering scent of the human the Nine-tailed Fox Lord had for dinner somewhere in the house.”

When Hwon answered calmly, without a hint of panic, the three-headed hawk grumbled.

“Aw, what a shame.”

“I wanted to eat one for the first time in a while. It’s so hard to hunt humans these days.”

“Next time you eat a human, please be sure to call us too.”

Jeha gave a wry smile by himself behind Hwon, who was nodding his head. Over a hundred spirits came and went like that, but the Giant-Mouthed Spirit was nowhere to be seen. Growing more anxious as time passed, Jeha stood next to Gu Minho’s ninth tail and asked.

“Just when is the Giant-Mouthed Spirit coming?”

“I don’t know. I told you he might not come.”

“Can’t you call him or send him an invitation?”

“How can I, when I don’t even know where he is.”

Watching the dwindling number of visitors, Jeha let out a deep sigh. Although he had acted perfectly fine in front of Chief Jeong as if he were all better, his body had not yet fully recovered, so the site of his surgery was throbbing and his whole body was exhausted.

Just past three in the morning, the guests began to thin out, and Jeha’s head was gradually drooping, unable to overcome his fatigue.

From far away, the sound of the ground vibrating could be heard. Startled awake, Jeha listened intently to the sound.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Each time the thumping sound was heard, the entire mountain trembled as if there had been an earthquake. The sound was getting closer.

“It seems your long-awaited guest has arrived.”

Gu Minho’s voice rode the air and entered Jeha’s ear. Jeha shot up from his seat. After a few more thumping sounds, a heavy, scraping sound was heard, like the rusty door of a warehouse that had been closed for a hundred years was opening. Squeak.

The moment he inadvertently glanced over the wall, Jeha’s eyes, which were rarely surprised by anything due to his dozens of reincarnations, widened. Something black like a giant hill was standing beyond the wall, its mouth wide open. The scraping sound, like a door opening, was the sound of it opening its mouth.

When Gu Minho swished his fourth tail, the wall became transparent, revealing a clear view of the outside. Behind its massive lower lip, which touched the ground and looked to be at least 3 meters long, teeth taller than Jeha stood like a wall. Its upper lip and upper teeth were barely visible even when he craned his neck back as far as he could.

“The Giant-Mouthed Spirit, whose lower lip touches the ground and whose upper lip touches the sky…”

As Jeha muttered, a sound was transmitted along with a rumbling vibration.

“Congratulations on becoming the Nine-tailed Fox Lord.”

Gu Minho raised his nine tails and approached the Giant-Mouthed Spirit with an elegant gait.

“I am only grateful that you have come all the way to this humble place.”

“I intend to enter the deep mountains now and rest for about three hundred years. I stopped by on my way there.”

Three hundred years. If he hadn’t met him today, Jeha would have been lucky to see him even if he died and was reborn three times. Jeha, who had taken the pearl Hwon was holding, said to the Giant-Mouthed Spirit.

“What must I do to meet the Blue-Robed Boy?”

Then, there was a squeaking sound of something moving, and two large eyeballs appeared above Jeha’s head. They were extremely grotesque and bizarre in appearance, but Jeha didn’t even bat an eye.

“A human? Could it be a human?”

“That is correct.”