“The call will come. It won’t come. It will come. It won’t come.”
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Shim Iyul plucked rose petals one by one and tossed them onto the mattress while muttering. He’d been sucking on an Einspänner as he passed by a flower shop, and while he was admiring how lush the roses looked, the owner told him to take one and gave him a stem. Humans were full of sin, but flowers were innocent, so he gladly accepted it.
“It won’t come. Damn it!!! I should’ve asked for one more!”
When the last petal ended on ‘won’t come’, Shim Iyul cried out and rolled around on the bed. Did he show off for nothing by saying tonight? Checking the time, it was already ten o’clock.
Only two hours remained until the time he’d told the hunter. Impatience surged wildly. Shim Iyul got down from the bed and paced around chanting “Call me. Call!” like a spell. But the phone didn’t ring at all. It turned on just fine, but could it actually be broken? So he even tried calling Old Man Kang. It connected perfectly.
“I said I can remove the White Fox’s yokai energy even if I don’t know about the Imugi’s curse! A hunter dares to play hard to get!”
If someone as noble as himself proposed an alliance, they should prostrate themselves and accept it gratefully. Anyway, humans are needlessly suspicious. His insides were burning, so he thought about going to buy another Einspänner but gave up. The Einspänner loaded with cream that humans made was delicious, but it had the side effect of making it hard to sleep.
‘Hmph, everything humans make is like that.’
Shim Iyul, who tossed far away the memory of excitedly eating it saying it was delicious, snorted and sat at the edge of the mattress. Then he took out a dagger from his backpack. The dagger with a handle end worn smooth as if announcing its age was a keepsake from his father, who had been a Dojajang.^4
“This will protect you like your father.”
The father who said that died a week later. On the day he’d said he’d go to the market to sell goods and buy flower shoes and meat. It was the doing of the men from the village where they’d been hiding at the time. His father, who’d been beaten and beaten again until his face was unrecognizable, had a flower shoe clutched tightly in his hand when he died a miserable death. It had been his mother’s. His mother wailed while clutching the corpse of his father who’d been beaten to death, and Shim Iyul hunted down the men who killed his father and tore them to death. Still, his rage didn’t subside, and when he tried to kill all the humans in the village, his mother embraced him and said:
“You’ve avenged him well. A life debt must be repaid with a life. But there’s no need to hate all humans.”
His mother was truly a special and strange fox. She was a yosu who truly loved his father and pitied humans.
But humans weren’t as good as his mother’s teachings. After even his mother died when the White Fox stole her heart, among the humans that Shim Iyul encountered while left alone, there were many who were more wicked and sinister than yosu. That’s why Shim Iyul hates humans. Of course, he also hates yosu who are born inherently wicked.
Shim Iyul kept only the first part of what his mother said in his heart. You’ve avenged him well.
“So I must avenge my mother too.”
That would be a child’s duty. Shim Iyul flicked the sharp dagger blade and glanced at his cell phone. The cell phone was still silent, and there was no sign of contact coming from the hunter.
‘It’s a trace I found after nearly 190 years.’
After devouring his mother, wherever it had hidden, the White Fox left no trace to be found.
“Should I say I’ll extend it until tomorrow night?”
Shim Iyul flopped backwards and rolled left and right while groaning. He was anxious because of the stubborn hunter.
This won’t do. Let’s go find them again. It was when Shim Iyul, thinking that, bolted upright. Finally the phone rang. Shim Iyul hurriedly grabbed his phone and checked the screen, and a bewitching smile spread across his lips.
“Yes.”
Shim Iyul answered the phone indifferently, pretending he hadn’t been waiting desperately.
— Fox bastard, that alliance you mentioned…… I’ll accept it.
The caller was the hunter as expected. Shim Iyul, who had been humming and throwing off the 100% silk pajamas he’d bought at the department store during the day, hesitated.
— Come right now.
Thinking about it, it was ridiculous. A hunter daring to order around someone as noble as himself, a Fire Fox, to come and go.
“Do you think I’m some cheap fox who comes running when you call?”
Shim Iyul stomped his feet with an indignant expression. He found himself most ridiculous for having been about to run over just because he was called. Even if he was desperate for a trace of the White Fox, he should have maintained the nobility of a Fire Fox.
“……His voice was trembling, wasn’t it?”
The hunter’s voice coming through the receiver had been trembling. He’d also gasped for breath occasionally, which must have been due to pain from the curse. Shim Iyul let out a light snort and put the silk pajamas that clung smoothly to his skin back on. He even buttoned it up one by one. Then he threw his body onto the mattress dotted with rose petals. Thinking he’d sleep now, he even turned off the lamp.
It was right when he’d closed his eyes. The phone rang again. Spinning around, he grabbed the phone and checked the screen to see the name ‘Insignificant Hunter’ displayed. It was the name he’d saved right after the call with the hunter earlier.
“I answered, Hunter.”
As soon as Shim Iyul answered the phone leisurely, the question “Fox bastard, when will you arrive?” flowed out. Shim Iyul twirled his red hair around his finger. With a face overflowing with composure, unlike when he’d desperately waited for the hunter’s call. Now that he knew he wasn’t the only desperate one, there was no need to take a submissive attitude at all.
“I’ll go tomorrow morning.”
— I told you to come right now.
The hunter’s voice piercing through the phone was fierce. Of course, Shim Iyul wasn’t scared at all.
“I don’t want to. I’m tired.”
— Do you want to break the alliance?
“That’s not it. The alliance is necessary.”
— Then right now—
“But I’ll go tomorrow morning. Right now I’m very tired and don’t want to move anymore. And Hunter, there’s a human saying ‘The thirsty one digs the well,’ isn’t there?”
Shim Iyul said with a face that wasn’t tired at all, overflowing with vitality and gleaming. In other words, he meant ‘Aren’t you the more desperate one?’ After a brief silence, the hunter swallowed his angry breath and asked.
— Where are you right now?
“A hotel.”
— Answer properly.
“Hotel Felice, room 1712. It’s a suite.”
Shim Iyul hung up, acting smug as if to say ‘You’ve never stayed in a luxury hotel suite like this, have you?’ Then, still holding his phone, he rolled around on the bed giggling. Thinking of the hunter who would come rushing over filled with frustration made him feel good for no reason.
“That’s why you shouldn’t have played hard to get from the start.”
If you’d obediently and meekly said ‘Yes’ when I said I needed an alliance with you, I wouldn’t have been so mischievous. The hunter deserves it.
Shim Iyul called the front desk to notify them of one additional guest, and described their general appearance.
Even after finishing the call with the front desk, Shim Iyul laughed for quite a while before getting down from the bed and turning on the light. Then he went out to the reception room and sat on the sofa with his legs crossed.
After humming a song he’d heard often on the street today while bouncing his legs for a while, just when he was starting to feel bored, he heard the sound of urgent knocking on the door. Shim Iyul jumped up and opened the door to see the hunter drenched in sweat. He must have received an additional card key from the front desk as he was holding it in his hand, but apparently didn’t have the leisure to open it with that.
“You look pretty rough?”
The hunter was clutching his stomach and couldn’t even breathe properly. Shim Iyul laughed at the quite pained appearance.
“Damn fox bastard.”
Eun Seonmyeong spewed curses as he entered the room. Then he staggered over to the sofa and sat down with a thud.
“What do you want from me? Explain exactly what you mean by wanting to stay by my side.”
Shim Iyul took out two cans of beer and approached the hunter.
“Want to drink? My treat.”
Eun Seonmyeong, who let out an empty laugh at Shim Iyul who oddly offered a can of beer without answering, took the beer. Then as soon as he pulled the tab, he started gulping it down. As if his insides were burning unbearably. In contrast, Shim Iyul buried his body deep into the sofa and leisurely drank his beer before speaking.
“Give me a room.”
“…….”
“Looking at it, the annex is empty, so give me that.”
The hunter’s house consisted of a main building, an annex, and a sarangchae, and among them, the annex seemed currently empty as no presence could be felt. He’d assessed this when he first went, and also when he went earlier to take the little ghost.
“Ha, a fox asking a hunter for a room…….”
It was a self-deprecating tone. At the soft voice drained of strength, Shim Iyul snorted.
“Only until the White Fox appears before you. Do you think I want to live in an unpleasant hunter’s house? When I have this nice hotel su.i.te room?”
“You must keep the two things you promised. Remove the White Fox’s curse, wake up the one you bewitched.”
“Of course I’ll keep them. I’m different from humans who have no integrity.”
Humans have different fronts and backs, and routinely discard promises like old shoes, but he is a noble Fire Fox. He keeps his promises.
“How laughable for a yosu to discuss integrity.”
“What?”
This really! It was the moment Shim Iyul, burning with anger, was about to argue.
“If you play even the slightest trick or stab me in the back, I will definitely kill you.”
Was the moaning while sweating an act? The hunter pulled out a gun from his bosom at high speed and aimed the muzzle at Shim Iyul’s heart. It was such a fast movement there was no gap to respond. The distance was close, so if hit in this state, it would be instant death.
Shim Iyul leaned his body forward then pushed the muzzle away with his finger as if leisurely. The muzzle was easily pushed away.
“As I said, I dream of longevity.”
Geez, that was a bit scary. Although the wound marks had disappeared, he hadn’t forgotten the pain when grazed by the exorcism bullet. Shim Iyul stood up feeling as if cold sweat was running down his spine.
“Hunter, never point a gun at my heart again.”
Because I’m scared an exorcism bullet might fly out.
At the cold warning hiding his true feelings, the hunter raised the corner of his mouth and put the gun back in his bosom. Then he stood up and said:
“Eun Seonmyeong.”
The hunter revealed his name, and Shim Iyul just lightly nodded his head. Thus the fox and the hunter formed a temporary alliance. Of course there was no friendly handshake.
***
^4 A person whose profession is making knives.
Dojajang (도자장/刀子匠) – knife maker/bladesmith
Sarangchae (사랑채) – traditional Korean men’s quarters/guest house
