“My bride, I’m sorry.”
On the morning of the 99th day since they began living together, Mr. Park embraced Shim Iyul and said he was sorry. Shim Iyul, who thought it was an apology for the trivial fight they’d had the day before, smiled saying it was okay. Mr. Park, who stroked his smiling face saying “I’m sorry, my bride. I truly love you,” embraced Shim Iyul again while simultaneously stabbing a knife into his back.
The sensation of the sharp blade cutting through skin and piercing into his body was still vivid even now. Shim Iyul pushed Mr. Park away and stared at him in shock. Surprise, betrayal, anger, sadness, and despair poured out along with the flowing blood.
“Why……”
He couldn’t ask until the end why he had broken the promise to protect each other and be together for life. Fierce emotions choked his throat. At first disbelief, then sadness, and finally murderous intent stormed through. When he was struggling to control his emotions, thinking he at least needed to know the reason, an arrow flew from behind. When he dodged quickly and turned around, he saw several hunters. The foreheads of the imposing hunters were branded with ‘反’. It was a brand given to hunters who harmed not only evil spirits but humans as well.
“So you really were a Fire Fox.”
“He’s a guy, but he’s truly alluringly sexy as befitting a Fire Fox, huh? Fuck, my lower half is tingling.”
“That guy’s really something too. They say you can’t think straight when bewitched by a Fire Fox, but to call us all saying kill me.”
Shim Iyul turned his gaze away from the group of hunters cackling among themselves and spouting obscene words, and glared at Mr. Park. He stood there blankly holding the knife stained with Shim Iyul’s blood, and red blood dripped steadily from the blade’s tip.
“I’m sorry.”
“……”
“My bride, I’m sorry.”
Over Mr. Park’s voice apologizing repeatedly, the promise he’d made on the day they made their marriage vow overlapped. And another voice as well.
“My bride, let’s grow old together for life. I’ll protect you so no one can harm my bride.”
“If anyone touches even a hair of my person, then it becomes my business, so I’ll stake everything to annihilate them. Without fail.”
Shim Iyul, who sat up in a daze, scratched his nape.
“Must be an unlucky day.”
The last moments with Mr. Park, whom he’d faced in a dream after a long time, were unpleasant. On that day long ago, Shim Iyul ultimately couldn’t ask why he’d betrayed him. He couldn’t kill Mr. Park either.
At first, after killing all the Anti-hunters who had started attacking, he’d naturally planned to end Mr. Park’s life too. As painfully as possible. But the moment he saw him calmly facing Shim Iyul, who approached radiating murderous intent while covered in the hunters’ blood, he couldn’t kill him. But he couldn’t forgive him either. Trust was already broken and only wounds remained. Shim Iyul, who wavered between anger and despair, ultimately just turned away. Then he ran like the wind and quickly escaped the place where he’d lived with Mr. Park.
Though the wound on his body healed before long since it wasn’t stabbed deeply, his betrayed heart didn’t heal easily. Shim Iyul suffered for a long time from the wound to his heart. Though it wasn’t the first time he’d been betrayed by a human, it hurt enough to kill him. The betrayal of the man to whom he’d given his heart for the first time left a brand deep in his heart that would never heal.
Feeling like his heart was throbbing, Shim Iyul, who had been pressing firmly on the area near his solar plexus with his palm, got up.
“On gloomy days, it’s Einspänner.”
Perhaps having overslept from the nightmare, when he came outside the sun was at its zenith. Shim Iyul tightly fastened his thick padding and left the annex. As it became January, the cold began in earnest. It had been bitterly cold for the past few days. Minus ten degrees Celsius, about minus fifteen degrees with the wind chill.
Sniffling, he glanced at the main building and it was quiet. He hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the hunter for several days because he’d been holed up after the Imugi’s curse began.
“He’s busy suffering, so why did he intrude on someone else’s dream without permission and make a fuss? Hunter.”
At the last moment of the dream, Eun Seonmyeong had suddenly appeared and threatened that if anyone touched his person, he’d annihilate them. That unpromising guy would probably keep whatever words he spat out no matter what. And though he was a wicked hunter who intruded on others’ dreams without permission and made threats, it also seemed certain he wouldn’t betray first. He felt that if something happened, if it were the hunter, he would thoroughly protect his people.
‘By the hunter’s “my person,” he probably means the shaman and the prematurely aged Han Seolju.’
Imagining Eun Seonmyeong tightly embracing and protecting Han Seolju and Ban Hanseong made him feel needlessly petulant. Shim Iyul left the house clicking his tongue with his cheeks puffed out like a sulking child and headed to the cafe. When he entered inside, the owner greeted him warmly saying “Welcome.”
“Today’s Einspänner too, right?”
“Yes. But I don’t see the cat again today.”
The black cat hadn’t been visible for several days. At Shim Iyul’s question, the owner’s complexion dimmed slightly.
“Her condition hasn’t been good lately, so I can’t bring her to the shop. She insisted on following me today too, but I forcibly left her behind. It seemed better for her to rest comfortably at home.”
While waiting for the Einspänner to be made, Shim Iyul pretended to look around the cafe while subtly spreading yogi by the window and entrance. It was to block the evil energy trying to creep inside since the black cat had been absent for several days.
“Your Einspänner is ready.”
“What’s your name?”
“Pardon?”
“Your name. Ah, I’m absolutely not hitting on you, so please don’t misunderstand.”
“I-I won’t misunderstand. I’m Lee Jinkyung.”
“I see, Lee Jinkyung-ssi. See you again tomorrow.”
Shim Iyul waved lightly to the black cat’s owner, Lee Jinkyung, whose face had reddened, then left the cafe.
When he returned strolling leisurely like an idle man, he saw Eun Seonmyeong standing in the yard. Shim Iyul approached with a bright smile without realizing it.
“Are you done now?”
Whether even bitter affection counts as affection, Eun Seonmyeong, whom he was seeing after several days, was fairly welcome. Eun Seonmyeong looked at Shim Iyul, who brightened up, for a moment then abruptly held out what he was holding. When he looked down wondering what it was, it was clothes.
“Those are your clothes. Why are you holding them out?”
“You said you’d wash them?”
“I’d wash them? Me?”
What are you talking about? Why would I wash your clothes…… As he frowned, he suddenly remembered the day the little ghost left. He’d yelled that he’d wash them when the hunter made a fuss about not wiping snot on his clothes, and it seemed he remembered that.
Wow, what a petty guy.
“Fine, I’ll wash them!”
Shim Iyul, who snatched away the hunter’s clothes, walked making loud footsteps then stopped.
“Hey, where’s the washing machine?”
I’ll just throw it in the washing machine, that’s what. Occasionally useful humans also made something called a washing machine, which is so convenient. Of course, Shim Iyul takes all his clothes to the laundry. Direct washing is unthinkable for an elegant Fire Fox’s dignity.
“There isn’t one.”
“……There isn’t? A washing machine?”
“There isn’t. Our house doesn’t use a washing machine.”
“……Um, excuse me. You’re not older than me, are you? I’m only 238 years old this year.”
Surely that hunter hasn’t been alive since mid-Joseon? Even I, a fox born in the late period, know the convenience of washing machines!
“What nonsense are you spouting? Seolju’s hobby is hand-washing, so we don’t use washing machines or anything.”
“His hobby is hand-washing? That’s a shabby hobby for someone his size.”
Shim Iyul made a wretched expression imagining Han Seolju, with his giant physique like a shinjang, crouching down doing hand-laundry.
“I didn’t know you’d aged for 238 years.”
“Am I jang? What do you mean aged? And for your information, that’s not old for a Fire Fox’s age. At 238 I’m in my prime, you know?!”
Shim Iyul, feeling offended as if treated like an old person, got choked up and yelled, then came over to the annex with thundering footsteps. It was when he slammed the door shut as if for him to hear and threw Eun Seonmyeong’s clothes he’d brought onto the floor.
“Don’t throw my clothes around.”
He didn’t know when he’d followed, but Eun Seonmyeong’s voice was heard from the yard. Shim Iyul, who flinched, gently put down the leg he’d raised to deliberately stomp on the clothes. Then he carefully picked up the clothes he’d thrown on the floor.
‘What? Hunter bastard, surely he doesn’t have clairvoyant eyes, does he?’
When Shim Iyul, who’d gently placed the clothes on the bed, came out of the room, he saw Eun Seonmyeong sitting on the wooden veranda.
“Do you by any chance have clairvoyant eyes too?”
“Would I have them?”
“You don’t. That’s a relief. You didn’t see it then.”
Me trying to deliberately stomp on your clothes after throwing them.
“See what?”
“You don’t need to know. But why did you come?”
“The way you say it makes me feel like an unwelcome intruder into someone else’s house, but this is my house too.”
“What are you talking about. While I’m using it, it’s my house. Why did you come? If you have something to say, hurry up and say it then scram.”
After constantly hearing ‘scram’ from Eun Seonmyeong, it didn’t feel bad to tell him to scram in return.
You think you’re the only one who can tell me to scram? I can tell you to scram too. With such thoughts, as Shim Iyul was gleefully content, something was placed in his hand. When he looked down, it was a 50,000 won bill. Shim Iyul, who raised his gaze, stared at Eun Seonmyeong with a look asking what this was.
“It’s allowance. Buy yourself some Einspänner that you’re crazy about.”
Eun Seonmyeong left the annex, leaving Shim Iyul behind. Only after hearing the bang of the door did Shim Iyul look down to check the bill again, his head tilting about 45 degrees.
“Did the curse invade his brain?”
He must have gone crazy. That hunter.
