“Is Mount Seorak your base?”
“What base? I have my field there so I go often, but it’s not a base. I go back once every thirty years or so and hole up for about three years.”
“Why once every thirty years?”
“My heat comes at that interval. I hole up because I don’t want to mate with humans. This time too, if it weren’t for the White Fox, I wouldn’t have come down early. I’ll say it again—it’s your misunderstanding. That day, I went into your room to get revenge for you putting the hunter’s smell on my new bed, not because I was after your body.”
“…”
“So stop looking at me like I’m a molester, okay? It hurts my pride.”
“Setting that aside.”
“It’s not setting aside!”
“I thought you were a tight-lipped fox, but turns out you’re a loose-lipped one.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why do you spill everything I ask?”
Just as he was blinking his eyes as if to say ‘Did I?’ at the absurd tone, the meat arrived. The owner personally placed the meat on the grill, saying “Only flip it once,” then retreated.
“Because we’re allies.”
Shim Iyul answered while flipping the meat exactly once as the owner said. Come to think of it, he really had spilled everything. Why? Why did I tell him everything? Though he was a bit flustered since he’d never done this before, he concluded it was because they weren’t enemies during the alliance.
Eun Seonmyeong silently watched Shim Iyul, who didn’t even offer once and was busy taking the meat to his own mouth as soon as it cooked, then pulled out his phone from his pocket. The phone was vibrating wildly. The caller was Ban Hanseong.
“What?”
— I’ll send an address to Gaju’s phone, so go there with Fox-nim. It’s the kindergarten our cute Seungjin attended.
“Got it.”
Though Eun Seonmyeong showed a slightly annoyed expression, he readily agreed. An address soon arrived.
“Is it the shaman? What did he say?”
“He says to go to the kid’s kindergarten.”
“I thought you’d get angry and tell me to go myself?”
“Hanseong has trouble talking to strangers. Though he does when absolutely necessary.”
“He doesn’t look like someone who’s shy with strangers.”
Shim Iyul tilted his head while holding chopsticks in his mouth.
“More importantly, are you eating it all by yourself?”
Shim Iyul, who had moved all the meat that was first placed on the grill to his own plate, made an extremely reluctant expression and picked up two pieces of meat with the tongs. Then he placed them on Eun Seonmyeong’s plate.
“Eat a lot.”
Eun Seonmyeong couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief at Shim Iyul, who smiled brightly while speaking as if doing a great favor.
“Are you actually not a fox but a pig?”
Having paid and come out, Eun Seonmyeong shook his head while looking down at the card receipt. 529,000 won was printed on the receipt.
“What kind of harsh thing to say is that? Calling a noble fox like me a pig!”
Shim Iyul, who had been rubbing his lower belly in satisfaction, burst out. A pig! How could he say such harsh words to a noble and beautiful fox like himself? His body trembled with humiliation.
“You ate 9 servings of sirloin by yourself plus cold noodles, that’s a pig.”
Shim Iyul ate all 5 servings they initially ordered and said it was a bit lacking, so he ordered 4 more servings. At first, he thought ‘Is he trying to rip me off? Let’s see, if he leaves any, I’ll force-feed it into his mouth,’ but that was completely unnecessary. He finished even the additional order and said he needed to cleanse his palate, so he even ordered cold noodles. Of course he ate all of that too. Every drop of the broth.
“What do you mean by myself? I ate with you.”
“Do you have a conscience?”
Eun Seonmyeong ate exactly three pieces. That wasn’t eating together, it was merely tasting.
“A Fire Fox as beautiful as me doesn’t need a conscience.”
When Shim Iyul spoke primly, Eun Seonmyeong wrinkled his brow as if he’d seen something unbearable.
“Show off somewhere else. Where does a fox dare show off in front of a hunter?”
At Eun Seonmyeong’s attitude of complete disgust, Shim Iyul clicked his tongue and shouted, “Hey! Where’d you park the car? Let’s go to Seungjin’s kindergarten!”
Shim Iyul and Eun Seonmyeong headed back to Ban Hanseong’s apartment parking lot and got into the Porsche. The address Ban Hanseong sent was in the same Yongsan-gu, not too far from Hannam-dong.
When they arrived, it was a small, ordinary neighborhood kindergarten. When they went inside, a woman in her late 50s who appeared to be the director came out.
“What can I do for you?”
“Are you the director here?”
“Yes, but…”
“Do you know a child named Lee Seungjin… I mean, a kid?”
At Eun Seonmyeong’s question, the director’s eyes widened.
“If you mean Seungjin, he attended our kindergarten until half a year ago.”
“We’re looking for Lee Seungjin’s mother. Please give us her contact information or address.”
When they suddenly requested personal information, naturally wariness appeared on the director’s face.
“I can’t just give out personal information. First tell me what you do and why you’re looking for Seungjin’s mother.”
The director responded quite firmly. While Eun Seonmyeong rubbed his chin in difficulty, wondering ‘How do I explain this?’, Shim Iyul stepped forward confidently. He smiled at the director.
“Look at me for a moment.”
The moment the director turned her head, Shim Iyul raised his body scent. A Fire Fox’s body scent naturally evokes favorable feelings in humans even when it’s faint—excluding hunters who describe it as nauseating. Anyway, when he deliberately made the scent that already gave humans a good feeling more intense, the director’s face, which had been stiff as a wooden block, softened.
With his beautiful face plus the body scent… Game over.
“We have circumstances that make it difficult to explain in detail, but… we need Seungjin’s mother’s contact information. Please tell us.”
“Yes. Please wait a moment.”
At Shim Iyul’s words tinged with a smile, the director hurried to the director’s office like someone under hypnosis. Then shortly after, she came back with Lee Seungjin’s mother’s contact information and address written on a memo.
“Here it is.”
“Thank you.”
Having cheerfully received and pocketed the memo, Shim Iyul turned to Eun Seonmyeong with an expression that said ‘See? This is what I can do.’ But he, who should have been beside him, was nowhere to be seen.
‘Where did he go?’
When he looked back further, Eun Seonmyeong was standing several steps away, holding his nose with his thumb and index finger.
“What are you doing?”
“Didn’t I tell you not to give off that nauseating smell?”
Eun Seonmyeong spoke coldly and left first with a stiff expression.
“That rude bastard. The shaman was exactly right. Exactly right. Total rude bastard.”
Of course Ban Hanseong had never described Eun Seonmyeong as a rude bastard. Grumbling, Shim Iyul looked at the director, whose expression was like a girl who’d fallen into passionate love. Then he placed his finger on her brow and let just a tiny bit of yokai energy flow in. The director, who closed her eyes smoothly as if she’d taken a sleeping pill, swayed, so he caught her and sat her against the wall before leaving the kindergarten. She’d probably think it was a dream when she woke up.
“Here’s the add… Where did he go?”
Eun Seonmyeong, who he’d naturally assumed would be waiting in the car, was nowhere to be seen.
He only returned after about 5 minutes. Shim Iyul, who had been standing blankly spending a boring 5 minutes, raised his voice as soon as he saw Eun Seonmyeong.
“Where did you go and only now come back?!”
“Is there a reason I need to tell you that?”
There isn’t.
“Right?”
“Hand over the information you got by bewitching her.”
“Here.”
Eun Seonmyeong looked down at the memo. The address written on the memo was also nearby. First, he tried calling. After several rings, a man answered the phone.
— Hello.
“Are you Lee Seungjin’s parent?”
— No. You have the wrong number. I recently changed to this number.
The man answered bluntly and hung up first.
“What did he say?”
“He says no.”
“Then let’s go to the address.”
Eun Seonmyeong nodded and started the engine. It took about ten minutes by car to the address on the memo, and it was a shabby multi-family house that looked old and had never been repaired, with the exterior walls crumbling in places.
“B101?”
At Shim Iyul’s question, Eun Seonmyeong nodded. They immediately went down the stairs and knocked on the door of B101. At first they pressed the doorbell, but it didn’t make a sound—whether it was broken or not—so they had no choice but to bang with their fists. Despite the *thud thud thud* sound being loud enough to bring down the building, there was no sign of life inside.
“Who’s there?”
They heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming down from upstairs, and an old woman with deeply wrinkled skin poked her head out.
“We’re looking for Kang Eunsuk-ssi.”
Kang Eunsuk was Lee Seungjin’s mother’s name. The memo the director handed over also had the name written on it.
“If you mean the kid’s mom, she moved out a few months ago.”
“Do you know where she went?”
“How would I know that?”
“Ah, then…”
Just as they were turning around thinking it would be difficult to get additional information, the old woman, who had sat down on the stairs, continued talking to herself.
“That young kid’s mom was so unfortunate. She had a son born after his father died, and he was sickly from childhood, then ended up getting a serious illness. Leukemia, I think…”
“And then?”
Shim Iyul approached the old woman and asked.
“To pay the hospital bills, she worked from dawn to dawn every day. But even that wasn’t enough money, so the monthly rent was overdue for several months. Still, I couldn’t press her for it. I felt sorry for her.”
“I see.”
Shim Iyul gave appropriate responses so the old woman wouldn’t stop talking, and the old woman continued.
“Her husband was an orphan too, so she had no in-laws to rely on. I thought she had no family either, but about half a year ago? A woman claiming to be her mother came and cried and fought and made a huge scene, then suddenly said she was moving out. The deposit had already been used up and I should have gotten more money from her, but the woman who came claiming to be her mother didn’t seem to be in good circumstances either, so I just let her go.”
The old woman kept tapping her knees as if her legs hurt.
“Her circumstances must have been really bad.”
“That’s what I’m saying. She worked at a department store during the day, and even after work didn’t rest but did side jobs. Sometimes it seemed like she went to a bar or karaoke or places like that too. A very unfortunate woman. But why are you looking for the kid’s mom?”
Eun Seonmyeong, who had been listening silently the whole time, finally asked indifferently.
“It’s nothing serious. But which department store did Seungjin’s mother work at?”
As soon as he got in the car, Eun Seonmyeong called Ban Hanseong.
— It’s me. Did you find her?
“They said she already moved from the address we found at the kid’s kindergarten, so find out where the current address is. The mom’s name is Kang Eunsuk, and it seems she worked at the department store where the kid was found.”
— Got it.
Ban Hanseong’s voice answering was gloomy. Shim Iyul’s expression wasn’t good either.
‘So she did abandon him?’
Because she couldn’t handle the hospital bills? They say family ties are bonds that can never be broken, but absurdly, they’re also bonds that can be easily broken. Shim Iyul had lived a life much longer than humans and experienced various types of people. While there were parents who willingly gave their lives for their children, there were also parents who easily abandoned their children. Some even sold their children for money as if they were objects. So if this woman named Kang Eunsuk couldn’t overcome poverty and abandoned her son, it wasn’t such a rare thing.
Abandoned Lee Seungjin might have gone looking for his mom alone and met with an accident. He didn’t know why he died at a snack bar, but at the moment of death, his soul that was ejected from his body instinctively went looking for his mom and became an earth-bound spirit.
Thinking that made him feel even worse.
“What’s with your expression?”
Eun Seonmyeong, who was about to start driving, asked.
“What about me?”
“You look like you’re about to cr… It’s nothing.”
The words ‘You look like you’re about to cry’ almost slipped out. There’s no way a yosu would cry feeling pity for a human child who became a ghost.
“Don’t make me talk. I’m going to sleep.”
Shim Iyul, who had crossed his arms, leaned back. Then he closed his eyes.
