“The view is nice, and it’s a pretty decent place to live.”
Having finished looking outside and returned to the sofa, Shim Iyul tapped Ban Hanseong’s shoulder.
“Did you find something?”
Ban Hanseong turned the laptop toward Shim Iyul. Then he showed him the photo he’d found during his search. On the screen was a kid wearing a yellow uniform. The bright smile was exactly the same as now. Looking at the background, it seemed like some kind of museum, apparently a group photo taken by the kindergarten.
“It’s the kid? Did you find the mom too?”
At Shim Iyul’s question, Ban Hanseong checked the kid’s location again and lowered his head, murmuring.
“I couldn’t find the mom, but I found out which kindergarten Seungjin attended.”
“Really? Then if we go there, we can probably find the mom too. Hey, kid over there!”
At Shim Iyul’s call, the two kids turned around. Shim Iyul gestured toward Lee Seungjin. The kid came running over in a hurry.
“Did you call me? Fox-nim.”
“Yeah, your mo—”
“Jajangmyeon! Seungjin-ah, want to eat jajangmyeon?”
Ban Hanseong quickly cut off Shim Iyul’s words.
“Ja, jajangmyeon? I want to eat it!”
“Right? You want to eat it? I’ve never seen a kid who doesn’t like jajangmyeon. Go play with Taeho some more. I’ll order it right away.”
Lee Seungjin ran toward Taeho shouting, “Elder! Hyung is buying us jajangmyeon!” They had similar face values, but Taeho was a ghost who had lingered much longer, so they’d had Lee Seungjin call him elder.
“…”
Shim Iyul furrowed his brow and stared at Ban Hanseong. His expression said, why did you interrupt me?
“Oh my, don’t make such a scary face, Fox-nim. A shaman with a weak heart like me will get a heart attack.”
“…”
When he silently pressured him with his eyes saying ‘Explain,’ Ban Hanseong shrank his shoulders and murmured.
“Well… Five months ago, there was a fire caused by a gas explosion at a snack bar behind ○○ Department Store. They said an unidentified child’s body was found there.”
At the words “unidentified,” Shim Iyul furrowed his brow.
“You think the kid who died at the snack bar is that little one?”
“Probably?”
Ban Hanseong’s gaze lingered on the burn marks all over the kid’s body. The fire that occurred near where he was found, the unidentified child’s body, and the kid’s burn marks. Shim Iyul clicked his tongue. Ban Hanseong’s guess was probably right.
“Wasn’t there a mother nearby?”
“It seems not.”
Right. If a parent had been nearby, he wouldn’t have been unidentified. Only then did Shim Iyul realize why Ban Hanseong had stopped him and crossed his arms irritably. A child alone at a snack bar died in a fire? The first thought that came to mind was, was he abandoned?
“Let’s go to the kindergarten.”
“Now?”
“After eating. What are you doing? Order the jajangmyeon. You know tangsuyuk is mandatory, right?”
“Extra large portion? Regular?”
“Extra large.”
Come to think of it, he’d been starving since yesterday’s unfortunate incident—that is, the incident where he nearly pressed bellies with Eun Seonmyeong. Realizing that, he suddenly felt hungry.
“As expected, you know what’s up. Extra large jajangmyeon is the golden rule!”
Ban Hanseong turned on his phone, which he only turned on when absolutely necessary, and ordered five extra large jajangmyeon and one large tangsuyuk.
The delivery arrived so fast you’d think they’d been waiting, arriving in an instant. It seemed to have taken less than 15 minutes from order completion to food arrival. After spreading the food on the living room table, one human, one fox, and three ghosts sat around it.
Just as they were about to eat the jajangmyeon before it got soggy, Ban Hanseong’s phone, which he’d forgotten to turn off after ordering, rang.
“Who is it? Spreading electromagnetic waves.”
Grumbling, Ban Hanseong picked up his phone, checked the screen, and reluctantly answered.
“It’s me, Gaju. When did you chase me out and why are you calling?”
— Open the door.
“What door are you suddenly telling me to open!”
— I’m in front of your house.
“What…?”
— Right. Now. Open. It.
Eun Seonmyeong’s cold voice reached even Shim Iyul’s ears. Ban Hanseong hurriedly opened the front door. Then he saw Eun Seonmyeong carrying a large Boston bag. He walked in without hesitation, then spotted Shim Iyul looking up with black sauce on his lips and frowned.
“What are you doing here?”
“Eating jajangmyeon, want some?”
Shim Iyul slightly pushed the jajangmyeon bowl toward Eun Seonmyeong, whose mouth was moving as if about to say something. Seeing that, Eun Seonmyeong sighed and set down his bag with a thud.
“What’s with the bag?”
“It’s Seolju’s luggage.”
“You really brought it? Didn’t he say he absolutely couldn’t leave the house because he needs to monitor the Gaju and Fox-nim?”
When told to stay with Ban Hanseong for a while, Han Seolju unusually raised his voice and stubbornly insisted.
“I absolutely cannot watch that Fire Fox cling to the Gaju! Not until there’s dirt in my eyes!”
Though he never disobeyed Eun Seonmyeong’s words, this time the resistance was quite strong. Thanks to that, Eun Seonmyeong had to break a sweat persuading Han Seolju. It was all the more difficult for Eun Seonmyeong because he couldn’t explain the exact reason.
“No monitoring needed. The fox and I aren’t in that kind of relationship like you’re misunderstanding.”
“If you’re not in that kind of relationship, why were you hugging each other?”
“Ask the fox about that.”
Eun Seonmyeong jerked his chin toward Shim Iyul. With eyes full of disgust as if to say he knew why Shim Iyul had come into his room and lay down naked. With a gaze like looking at a molester, Shim Iyul felt wronged.
“I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not that.”
Eun Seonmyeong was definitely thinking ‘You fox bastard, you came in wanting my body, didn’t you?’ He’d never coveted the hunter’s body. He didn’t need it.
“It doesn’t seem like it’s not.”
“I said it’s not! I did go into your room then, but I didn’t lie down on purpose, I passed out from the sleep herb smell!”
“While naked?”
“I didn’t strip! Well, when I woke up I was stripped, but I don’t know why I was stripped. I don’t know!”
“I can’t believe that. Especially considering that crazy question of yours.”
The question about anuses. In Eun Seonmyeong’s mind, Shim Iyul had definitely entered his room with very impure intentions, stripped off his clothes, then passed out from the sleep herb smell. The sleep herb must have protected his body.
Shim Iyul felt so wronged he wanted to jump up and down. His face flushed red from how wronged he felt, and tears even welled up in his eyes. Just as he was about to explain again with an extremely aggrieved expression:
“Geez, go have your lovers’ quarrel somewhere else. It’s so loud I can’t eat!”
Ban Hanseong tapped the jajangmyeon bowl with his chopsticks, then raised his voice and drove both Eun Seonmyeong and Shim Iyul out.
Chased into the hallway in the confusion, Shim Iyul found wooden chopsticks covered in jajang sauce gripped in his hand. Shim Iyul looked down at the chopsticks helplessly, then glared at Eun Seonmyeong, who had caused this.
“Hey, I got kicked out because of you, so buy me food.”
“Why should I?”
“I’m hungry. I don’t have money.”
He’d realized he’d left both his card and phone in the annex only after arriving at the cafe and ordering. When he panicked not knowing what to do, the cafe owner was generous enough to gladly give him credit.
Eun Seonmyeong stared dumbfounded at Shim Iyul boldly demanding he buy him food because he had no money, then swallowed a sigh and turned around.
“Let’s go.”
An old saying went that even if you hate a starving beast, you must feed it.
The place the two headed to was a meat restaurant not far from Ban Hanseong’s apartment. Shim Iyul, who had entered the restaurant in high spirits as it was in the middle of cleaning, having just opened, quickly scanned the menu.
“Samgyeop—”
“Give us 5 servings of Korean beef sirloin. No, please give us that!”
Shim Iyul cut off Eun Seonmyeong, who was about to order pork cheaply, and held up five fingers toward the owner. After all, when getting someone else to buy you food, especially an annoying bastard like a hunter, you had to order Korean beef.
The owner promptly relayed to the kitchen, “Five servings of Korean beef sirloin!”
“Don’t you often get told you’re shameless?”
“I often get told I’m beautiful. As you can see, my appearance is quite exceptional.”
Shim Iyul swept back his shimmering red hair and smiled seductively. Eun Seonmyeong clicked his tongue and turned his head.
‘He must be crazy.’
The face of Shim Iyul wrapped in lust while emitting pheromones suddenly came to mind. At the same time, he felt a surge of strength below. This must be why they say there’s no cure once you’re properly bewitched by a Fire Fox.
Just then, the owner, who had been about to bring water, stopped and stared with dazed eyes at Shim Iyul, who was still showing off his appearance. When Eun Seonmyeong cleared his throat with spiritual energy infused, only then did the owner snap back to his senses and awkwardly set down the water. Eun Seonmyeong poured water into the cup as if he’d been waiting and gulped it down. He’d needed cold water, and the water bottle had ice cubes floating in it, so it was just right.
“I’ll bring the meat shortly.”
The owner, who had put in the charcoal, said while laying out side dishes on the table. Among the side dishes, he saw corn cheese. Shim Iyul quickly grabbed a spoon and pulled the corn cheese plate toward himself. Eun Seonmyeong watched Shim Iyul eating the corn cheese with a happy face and asked.
“Don’t Fire Foxes live by eating human vital energy?”
“I don’t eat that kind of thing. There are so many delicious foods among human food, why would I eat that? I’ve eaten human food since I was born.”
He didn’t care what other Fire Foxes ate and lived on. Shim Iyul had grown up eating the human food his mother made, and even after being alone, he lived on human food. When he holed up in the mountains, he lived mainly on medicinal herbs. Sometimes he dug up and ate wild ginseng too.
Though it was a Fire Fox’s instinct to mate with humans when the heat arrived, anyway, as a yosu he could probably absorb human vital energy through mating. He wasn’t exactly sure though.
His mother hadn’t taught Shim Iyul much about life as a Fire Fox. She always went on about noble Fire Foxes and such, but in fact, Shim Iyul didn’t know much about the Fire Fox that made up half his body. Perhaps his mother did this because she wanted Shim Iyul to live as a human rather than as a yosu.
