Chapter Text
Seulgi stops her car in front of an old house, its weathered exterior bearing the unpaid debt of time. Even in the quiet years it had stood, it still holds the warmth that Seulgi had never found in the city.
She looks at it through the window of her old beaten down Honda Accord. Reminiscing the forgotten moments of a childhood she had buried deep in the corners of her mind.
She slowly gets out of the car and opens the trunk to get her duffel bag and the box filled with her things: clothes, toiletries, trinkets, memorabilia.
She didn’t pack much—only the things that mattered.
Seulgi walks toward the house, fishing the rusty front door key out of her pocket. It takes a few tries before the key finally turns. Years of neglect had left the lock stiff.
The front door protested as she pushed it open.
“Still complaining, huh?” Seulgi chuckles at the old habit of her late grandmother’s house. The hinges answers with a tired groan.
The first thing Seulgi noticed was that the house still smelled the same. Not like dust. Not like abandonment.
It smelled faintly of the chamomile flowers her grandmother used to dry out for tea, old cedar wood, and the brown sugar and honey candies her grandmother used to hide in a ceramic jar by the television.
Nothing has changed inside the house. It still lives, even if it’s frozen through the last routine of her late grandmother.
Nothing has changed. Except Seulgi.
She lets go of her duffel bag, allowing it to fall beside the front door with a heavy thud, while she gently sets the box down next to it. It was the only sound that vibrated through the old home. The silenced that followed was enormous.
Seoul had made her forget what the silence sounded like. There was always another bus passing by, another impatient honk from selfish drivers, another shout bleeding through apartment walls as neighbors argued and complained, and the same haunting conversation she had with... someone.
In here, the loudest thing she could hear was the wind. Whistling through the cracks of the home’s closed off windows.
She slipped off her shoes automatically, remembering the rules her grandmother had set. She would have scolded Seulgi if she hadn’t.
“Halmeoni, I’m home!” she called. The words came so naturally.
The empty house greeted her with nothing at all.
The smile that had begun to creep across her face vanished instantly, remembering the reality and settling with it.
After her grandmother’s passing, the house had been left untouched by the rest of the world.
Untouched by the world, but not by time.
It lingered in every corner of the house. The floorboards sagged beneath the footsteps of a late old woman. The wallpaper had faded into a softer, duller version of itself. The wooden beams seemed exhausted from carrying the weight of what remained.
Yet none of it felt ruined. It felt preserved. For an old house like this one, it didn’t feel haunted. It felt patient.
Seulgi felt like it was waiting for her return.
As seulgi set her things quietly in the corner, she admires the house with a nostalgic gaze. Stepping inside felt like crossing a threshold, the endless noise of Seoul fell away without protest in this sanctuary.
Every corner seemed to hold the quiet residue of the ordinary happiness she had only known as a child.
Nothing grand had ever happened here. There were no miracles, no revelations. Only the summers spent chasing dragonflies and beetles. A bowl of fresh apples waiting on the kitchen table. Honey candies discreetly stolen from the ceramic candy jar. Forgotten songs and old folklore that her grandmother used to comfort her whenever her parents forget to come and take her home.
The city had taught her that homes were temporary. Apartments are traded for better high-end ones, neighborhoods abandoned for urbanization, and memories packed into cardboard boxes to be donated or sold to thrift stores.
This place had refused to learn that lesson. It remained exactly where her childhood had left it.
A chime of a notification from her phone breaks her trance.
Seulgi instinctively reaches for her phone, and reads an email notification: Payment for Credit Card
No messages.
Seulgi shuts off her phone and throws it on the sofa.
Cleaning became easier than thinking.
Seulgi opened every window, letting the mountain air blow the stale dust that had resided inside. She swept floors that had stopped expecting footsteps. She washed the dishes that hadn’t been touched since the funeral, Seulgi gagged at the remaining mold left on the utensils.
She watered the plants inside the house hoping to revive it somehow, if that’s still possible. She dusted away the cobwebs and dirt that surrounded the walls, and the framed pictures on the shelves. Every movement felt strangely familiar, as if her body remembered the routines that her heart had forgotten.
As the sun had started to set, sweat clung to the back of her neck. The house now looked slightly less lonely. An upgrade from what it looked like a few hours ago.
She collapsed onto the living room sofa and stared at the ceiling. She instinctively fished her phone that was buried beneath the pillows. There were still no messages.
Seulgi opens Krystal’s chat.
Then restores it.
Then deletes it again.
“God, I’m so helpless…” she whispers into nothingness before locking her phone once more.
After a moment, she sat up and looked at the framed pictures beside the television. A picture of her parents, a child version of her, and her grandmother.
How times have changed. Her family is never complete anymore, or will ever be.
Then, she remembers a conversation with her parents.
Her parents had wanted to sell the house.
“It’s falling apart, there’s no use with it anymore.”
Her father says flatly. Like he didn’t grew up there. Like that wasn’t his mother’s home.
“no one lives there anymore…” her mother rebutts, taking her father’s side. “It’s worthless anyway.”
Funny.
They had said the same thing when Seulgi told them she loved women.
“it’s just sentimental clutter.” Her father adds.
Seulgi remembered nodding through the entire conversation, too exhausted to even argue. It’s not like they would’ve taken her word.
Then, after the lawyer explained that the house had been left solely to her, her parents had simply shrugged and gave up.
"If you want it, keep it."
As though they were talking about an old sofa.
And not the only place she'd ever felt unconditionally loved.
“Well, I’m fucking keeping it!” she shouts and feels tears prickling her eyes.
Her words weren’t about the house. Seulgi was defending the last tangible piece of the person who loved her. But there was no one left to defend anymore.
She’s just tired.
Seulgi curled up on the sofa, letting sleep carry away the thoughts she no longer had the strength to hold.
Seulgi wakes up at around 6:00 AM in the morning. Too early for her usual routine but it’s alright, she still had a few rooms to clean in the house before she goes away.
Seulgi makes her coffee. Without meaning to, she makes Krystal’s preferred taste. Seulgi hadn’t noticed it, she didn’t have any strength left in her to remember anyway.
Cleaning the house felt like she’s mourning. Every room is another memory.
The kitchen, where her grandmother made all her favorite meals. The bathroom, where she'd slipped and cried as a child. The garden, where her grandmother watered the plants every morning. The living room, where she'd sneak honey candies from the ceramic jar despite her grandmother always catching her anyway.
Then her bedroom.
Her childhood bedroom waited at the end of the hallway. It hadn't changed at all, it was as though time had buried a part of her there, just as it had buried her grandmother within the walls of the house.
The faded wallpaper hadn’t changed. Neither the crooked bookshelf her grandfather had built decades ago when this was still her father’s room.
Even the glow-in-the-dark stars she’d insisted on sticking to the ceiling remained stubbornly attached.
“They’re still here…” she laughs under her breath.
For a moment, she was eight years old again. For a moment… nothing hurt.
Then her phone buzzed. One notification.
Krystal
She stared at the name sitting on her notification.
She locked the screen. Some ghosts didn’t need invitations.
The floorboards of Seulgi’s childhood bedroom groaned under her weight. The air tasted of stagnant dust and forgotten memories.
Later, while sweeping beneath the bed, the broom caught against something.
A loose floorboard.
Curious, Seulgi knelt and pried it open. Her hands trembled as she pulled open the loose floorboard beneath her old bed, not searching for anything in particular, but for a momentary distraction before she walks into the woods with the suffocating finality of her decision.
Inside lay a tiny collection of forgotten treasures. Some marbles, an old cassette tape she no longer had anything to play. Among the old sketchbooks and dried flowers, her fingers brushed against two pieces of crumpled paper.
Seulgi smoothed them out on the dusty floor. They were flyers from over a decade ago.
She carefully unfolded the first.
The first was a MISSING poster, the ink faded with age, but the woman’s face remained stunningly clear.
A girl with porcelain skin. Beautiful, almost impossibly so.
The second was a crudely printed BEWARE notice, a warning to the town’s locals. The sheet carried the same face.
The woman on the paper didn’t have a name.
Seulgi frowned. "...What was I thinking?"
She couldn't remember why she'd hidden them.
Seulgi stared at the sharp jawline and the dark, mesmerizing eyes of the woman. Her younger self had kept these hidden like some sort of treasure. She couldn't remember why, other than a vague, childhood memory of thinking the girl was attractive.
But, only one vague childhood memory resurfaced.
She'd thought the woman in the photograph looked too beautiful to belong on something as ugly as a warning poster. Or, that she’s far too beautiful to belong to a tragedy.
Even now, decades later...
She still thought so.
Almost absentmindedly, she folded both papers and slipped them into her jacket pocket.
As the evening settled over the mountains, Seulgi stood on the front porch with the house key resting on her palm.
She looked at the front door one last time, curling her fingers around the key until it bit gently into her skin. The smell of rust sticking to her like perfume.
She locks the door.
She had done everything right: she took a shower, changed into something comfortable, and put on her jacket just in case it turned chilly. Then, she deep-cleaned the house, watered the plants one last time, and locked the front door.
She slid the key beneath the old flowerpot beside the entrance. Exactly where her grandmother used to leave it. Not because she plans on coming back. But because habits survived even when hope didn’t.
She turned toward the mountain path, not looking back anymore.
She was a ghost in her hometown.
The forest surrounding the house was alive. It breathed.
Wind slipped gently through the never-ending rows of pines, carrying the scent of damp earth and wild grass. Cicadas sang everywhere. The mountain watched over everything with the stillness of an old guardian.
Seulgi had forgotten that the silence of the trees could sound this alive.
When she was in Seoul, silence always felt interrupted. Always swallowed by engines, construction, the rush hour, and strangers passing too quickly to notice one another.
Here, even the forest seemed to know her name. It didn’t demand anything from her, it simply existed. And somehow, that gentle certainty felt more sacred than anything Seulgi had encountered in her life.
The mountain path had not forgotten her. It welcomed Seulgi with the same uneven stones that had once scraped the knees of a little girl determined to outrun butterflies. Ferns leaned over the narrow trail as though trying to greet her, brushing against her jeans with quiet familiarity.
She had walked this path hundreds of times. Every summer. Every school vacation. Every year her grandmother insisted that children belonged beneath open skies instead of apartment ceilings.
"Cities make people forget," Halmeoni used to say, holding Seulgi’s hand as she skipped with dirt already staining her socks. "Mountains remind them."
Back then, Seulgi had rolled her eyes. She hadn't understood. She had been a child.
Breathing had seemed effortless then. Now, every inhale felt borrowed.
She continues to walk beyond the trees.
Her parents brought her to places they insisted were holy throughout her life, except the moment when she told them her truth.
Then they left her on the curb, and the thought that she didn't belong finally found a home in her mind.
Cathedrals and chapels, where polished stained glass bathed neatly aligned pews in colored light, leading every gaze toward the altar where the Savior had always dwelled.
Places that promised grace. Places that promised that she will become the right kind of daughter. Yet none of them made her feel safe, or as deeply known as the beaten down house residing at the foot of a mountain.
There were no hymns here, no holy statues, no gospels, no incense. Just the forest, the mountain, the waterfall, and her grandmother’s house.
Yet, this is the closest thing to sacred ground Seulgi would ever know.
The waterfall waited somewhere beyond the trees. She remembered how beautiful it had always been. If there had to be a last thing she will ever see, she wanted it to be that.
Not another concrete skyline. Not another apartment that never felt like home. Not another city that kept asking her to keep going when she no longer knew why.
The mountain had loved her once, and she loved it the same.
Maybe…
It would be kind enough to take her back.
The roar of the waterfall grew louder.
Seulgi emerged from the trees onto a familiar stone. The waterfall’s mist drifted through the air, feeling cool against her skin.
The waterfall plunged over the cliff, its waters shimmering beneath the light the trees allowed to filter through.
It’s beautiful.
Hauntingly beautiful.
It didn’t matter now, the roar of the mountain’s waterfall drowned out the noise in Seulgi’s head. She stood at the highest precipice of the cliff, where the river rushed violently over the edge. The drop is lethal, absolute, and exactly what she needed.
“If there has to be a last thing I’d have to see…” Seulgi gulps, looking at the violent waterfall. “I wouldn’t mind it being you.”
She stepped closer to the edge. One foot, then another. The wind tugging at her jacket as if welcoming her.
She closed her eyes. The world became nothing but rushing water and cold air.
One more step…
Then someone speaks. The voice sounded almost offended.
“Absolutely unbelievable.”
Seulgi turns at the sound of the voice, slowly opening her eyes.
A woman sat comfortably atop a flat boulder a few meters away, one leg crossed over the other, sipping iced coffee through a paper straw.
She’s absurdly beautiful. A beauty that magazines tried to imitate but couldn’t.
Poignant, haunting…
A beauty that appears only once every blue moon.
Her black hair spilled over one shoulder. She wore black jeans, leather boots, and a blouse that looked far too expensive for someone casually loitering beside a mountain waterfall.
She took another sip, teasing and waiting “You’ll make a terrible mess.”
“…Excuse me?” Seulgi blinked.
“The blood.” The woman gestured toward the waterfall. The movement made the remaining iced coffee in her hand shake.
Seulgi doesn’t speak.
“Very inconsiderate, must I say.” The beautiful woman sips from the paper straw. “I quite like this spot.”
Seulgi stared silently.
“…I’m sorry?” Seulgi’s so fucking confused.
“You should be.” The woman says, finishing the iced coffee and throwing it somewhere in the forest. “I come here for the scenery. It’s my favorite cliff.”
A long awkward pause.
“…What? If you hit those rocks,” The woman points lazily. “you’ll ruin the water, spoil the fish, and frankly, you’ll spoil my appetite.
Seulgi blinks.
“Honestly. People have no manners anymore.” The woman shook her head, laughing.
Seulgi continues to stare at her. It’s absurd. So absurd that Seulgi almost laughs.
The beautiful woman never introduces herself. She simply keeps talking. She speaks formally. Almost poetically.
Then she immediately ruins it.
“What year is it?”
“…2026.” Seulgi answers quietly, yet the woman still heard it.
She nods. “Figures…”
“…What?”
“I missed another election.” The woman sighs.
She’s obviously strange. She sounds like someone born centuries ago, yet she understands modern humor, and loves complaining. The combination is endlessly amusing.
Seulgi laughs, small and disbelieving. Like what the hell is actually going on?
“There!” the woman points at her, a real smile on her face.
“What?”
“A laugh.” The woman shrugged. “Much better than crying.”
Seulgi frowned. Not laughing or joking this time, as if she was joking the first time. She’s actually pissed, no matter how beautiful this woman is. “Who are you?”
The woman smiled without answering. Instead, she stood.
Gracefully. Too gracefully.
Every movement carried an uncanny elegance that could only be honed through years of disciplined training...
Or by someone who had simply lived for a very, very long time.
She walked toward Seulgi until only a few feet separated them.
"So." She smiled, almost mischievously. "What was the plan?"
Seulgi frowned, again.
"You jump. You die..." The woman counted on her fingers.
She held up the next finger.
"I go hungry." A familiar hunger flickered behind her eyes, gone almost as quickly as it appeared.
“…Go hungry?”
The woman nodded solemnly. “You smell delicious.”
Silence.
“What?”
"Heartbreak." She suddenly cupped a hand over her chest with theatrical flair. "Fresh... with little hints of abandonment." The woman drawled the last words, deliberately teasing Seulgi.
“And unresolved childhood trauma…” She smiled as though she'd just identified the last ingredient in a recipe. “With just a touch of lesbian yearning.”
Seulgi doesn’t know if she’s offended by this. Seulgi stared at the woman for so long that the beautiful woman laughed outright.
“I’m kidding.”
A beat.
“…Mostly.”
For the first time since meeting the mysterious woman, a chill crept down Seulgi's spine.
“You.” Seulgi points at her.
“…Yes?”
“…You’re weird.” Seulgi nods aggressively.
“I’ve been called enchanting. Gorgeous. Ethereal…” The woman twirls a hair strand around her finger, stealing flirtatious glances at Seulgi.
“No. Weird.” Seulgi presses on. Standing her ground. Refusing to let herself be swayed by the shameless seductress before her.
“How cruel.” The woman pressed a hand dramatically over her chest. “I rescue one beautiful girl from redecorating my waterfall, and this is the gratitude I receive.” She pouts.
“I never asked you to rescue me.” Seulgi’s voice is firm.
The beautiful woman seemed to sense the weight of those words. The teasing smile faded, if only for a moment.
“No.” the woman’s smile softened, only slightly. “You didn’t.”
For the first time since she’d appeared, something ancient flickered behind her eyes. A sadness that had lived far too long enough for someone like Seulgi to understand.
“But I couldn’t watch you disappear anyway.”
The moment lasted only a heartbeat. Then the woman smiled again, but this smile was different. Bright, cunning, dangerous…
As though the centuries had quietly slipped back behind the mask.
“So…” She walked a few steps near Seulgi, not close but just near enough to catch the faint scent of chamomile flowers, pine and a cold mist clinging on her clothes.
“Would you like to do something far more irresponsible than dying?” The woman asked seriously, though the playful hint never leaving her tone.
Seulgi raised an eyebrow.
“I have somewhere to be.” The woman says, waiting for Seulgi’s reaction. “I have someone to eat…” She drawls at the last words.
Seulgi finds her somewhat infuriating.
“And a beautiful girl like me could use some company.” The woman flashed a dazzling smile, lingering just long enough for Seulgi to catch the unusually sharp canines peeking beneath her lips.
“You like those don’t you?”
“You are joking…” Seulgi sighs, massaging her temple.
“I almost never joke about dinner.”
Seulgi searched the woman's face for any sign that she'd lost her mind. There was none, the woman didn’t falter at all, she absolutely meant it.
Instead, Seulgi found amusement. Playfulness, even Something flirtatious dancing at the corners of the beautiful stranger's smile.
“…You’re serious.” Seulgi breathes out.
“Oh, terribly.” The woman pouts again, her eyebrows knitting into an almost cute look.
“And if I say no?”
The woman walked closer to Seulgi again, this time close enough to count the flecks of amber hidden inside her impossibly dark eyes.
“Then…” The woman smiled.
"Well," she sighed dramatically, "I suppose I'll have to distract you for the rest of the evening."
It should have terrified Seulgi. There was something undeniably predatory about the stranger, and she wore her amusement like a second skin. But against every instinct she still possessed, she thought the stranger was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
The beautiful stranger smiled as though she’d merely invited Seulgi for lighthearted coffee.
“So, have I convinced you to postpone your dramatic exit?” she asked.
Seulgi stared at her, somewhat offended. Then, without another word, she turned back toward the cliff. The waterfall roared below, waiting for her.
The woman sighed. “Oh, you’re stubborn.”
Seulgi ignored her. She takes one step. The mist kissing her cheeks again.
Another step.
She’d already made peace with this. With disappearing. With becoming another body swallowed by the mountain.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you…” The stranger spoke again.
Silence.
“You’ll hit those rocks before the water.” She said it with unsettling certainty, as though speaking from experience.
Still, Seulgi kept taking small steps.
She didn’t want another conversation. Didn’t want another reason. Didn’t want another tomorrow. She just wanted quiet.
Seulgi steps forward ready to jump and—
A pair of arms wrapped around her waist. Firm, cold, and immovable.
“What the fu—?!” Seulgi struggled. “Let me go!”
The woman simply rested her chin on Seulgi’s shoulder. Blowing lightly against Seulgi’s ears.
“I’d rather not.” She hummed.
“Are you insane?!” Seulgi shouts.
“I’ve been called many things.” The woman simply shrugged.
“I’m serious!”
“So am I.”
Seulgi dug her heels into the dirt, elbowing backward with everything she had.
The woman barely moved.
“Stop fighting.” She commanded, a slight annoyance on her face.
“No!”
“You’ll hurt yourself.” The woman says. Her tone changing into something more serious, softer.
“I don’t care!”
“I know, that’s why I’m not letting you.” The words were spoken so softly, they hurt more than being restrained.
Seulgi twisted violently.
“Why do you care?!”
The stranger didn’t answer, for the first time. Instead, her hold tightened. Not painfully, but protectively. Like she’s trying to keep together something that had already shattered.
“I’m letting go.” The woman lied beautifully, Seulgi almost believed her.
“…One.”
Seulgi stopped resisting.
“…Two.”
The moment Seulgi relaxed…
She drove the heel of her foot backward, connecting with the woman’s shin with a powerful blow.
“Okay, ow…” the woman seethes quietly.
“I knew you’re lying!” Seulgi continued to twist again.
“That hurt a little.”
“Good!”
The woman laughed. Actually laughed, soft and genuine. A delighted sound that echoed against the cliffs, and also Seulgi’s ear.
“Oh, I like you.”
“I don’t care!” Seulgi fought harder. She kicked, and pushed, and scratched. Like a kitten fighting a hand that held her.
The stranger accepted every attempt with a playful patience. Eventually, she sighed.
“I was hoping not to do this.” The woman shrugs.
“What?”
“I apologize in advance.”
“For wh—”
A gentle tap. Two fingers against the back of Seulgi’s neck.
Darkness rushed between her eyes before she even realized she stopped standing.
The last thing Seulgi heard was the woman’s voice.
“I’m sorry.”
Then…
Nothing.
The smell of burning firewood reached Seulgi first. Then came warmth. From the fire first, then the blanket.
And the sound of something simmering inside a cast-iron pot from another room.
Seulgi groaned, her eyes protesting to open. A dull ache pulsed behind her temples, threatening to become a migraine. The ceiling above her isn’t something she recognized.
Dark wooden beams stretched overhead, worn smooth by age. The scent of chamomile lingered in the air, mingling with dried herbs and something faintly sweet she couldn't place. Flowers? Tea? Honey? Candy?
Seulgi was too sleepy to even recognize and name the smell.
Shelves lined the walls, crowded with weathered books, ceramic jars, and bundles of plants hanging upside down to dry.
It looked like an old wooden hanok preserved from another century. Every plank, every beam, every carefully repaired crack spoke of a house that had endured. Time had softened the wood, yet nothing felt neglected. It was old in the way mountains were old—weathered, patient, and impossibly steadfast.
Sunlight filtered through paper-covered windows, painting pale squares across the polished wooden floor. From outside, she could hear the quiet rustling of trees instead of traffic.
For one dizzying moment, Seulgi wondered if she'd somehow awakened inside a memory instead of a house.
“…Where?”
“Good morning.”
Seulgi jerked upright from the futon.
The woman from the mountain leaned comfortably against the door frame. Her arms are crossed, and a bewitching smile on her face as she watches Seulgi regain her consciousness.
“You slept for almost six hours. To be honest, it’d be better if you slept more.”
“…You kidnapped me.” Seulgi groans, massaging her temples.
“Wrong.” The beautiful stranger rolled her eyes. “I rescued you.”
“You knocked me unconscious.” Seulgi glares at her.
“You were being difficult.”
“I was trying to die!”
Seulgi had enough of this. It was far too late for the day to be arguing with this infuriatingly unserious woman.
“You also kicked surprisingly hard.”
Seulgi glared at her. “I should call the police.”
“You could.” The woman snickers under her breath. “They’ve been trying to arrest me for roughly three centuries.”
Silence.
“…You’re really insane.”
“I’ve been told… for like 3 times now since I met you.” She walked toward Seulgi with an unhurried elegance.
“Since we’re living together now—"
“We are absolutely not living together.” Seulgi's groan cut her off.
“Temporary misunderstanding then.” The woman shrugged, teasingly.
She then disappeared into the other room after hearing the pot whistle.
Seulgi sat alone on the futon, rubbing the dull ache at the back of her head.
“…Unbelievable.”
She's kidnapped by a crazy, strange woman. That wasn’t even the strangest part of her day.
She reached into her jacket pocket out of habit, trying to feel if her wallet and phone was there. But her fingers brushed against paper.
The flyers.
She pulls it out and unfolds them carefully, the ragged edges threatening to crumble beneath her fingertips.
The photograph stared back at her. The same impossible face she’d admired as a child.
She noticed the porcelain skin first, then the long dark hair, then dark eyes that seemed to glow, and lastly, her lips curved into the teasing smile that she’s familiar with now.
A strange thought crossed her mind.
Before Seulgi could process what she’s thinking, the floor creaked and the woman returns in the room carrying two steaming mugs.
“I’m not sure if you prefer tea during the mornings, but my coffee maker is broken.” She offered.
Seulgi looked up. Then back down on the paper. Then up again.
Realization slowly hits. Her eyes widen and a gasp gets caught between her lips.
The woman tilted her head. “What?”
Seulgi slowly raised the flyer. “…Stay there.”
The woman rolled her eyes. “Am I in trouble?”
“Don’t move.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
Seulgi looked from the paper… then to the stranger. Then back to the paper.
The same eyes. The same nose. The same teasing smile. The same tiny beauty mark. Even the way a loose strand of dark hair fell across her cheek.
It was…impossible.
“No fucking way…” Seulgi gasps.
“Hmmm?” The woman took careful sip of her tea.
“This…” Seulgi points at the flyer. “This is you!”
The woman lets out a sigh. “Oh.”
“I was wondering where I’d seen that picture.” She rolled her eyes.
Seulgi could only stare.
“…What do you mean where you’ve seen that picture.” She repeated firmly. The stranger is not taking this seriously.
“I never liked that one.” The woman sulked, staring at the flyer with visible disappointment.
"My left side photographs better."
Silence.
"...You're joking." Seulgi couldn’t believe it.
"No."
"...No?"
"I genuinely prefer my left profile." The woman sips her tea.
Seulgi lowered the paper. Frustrated that she couldn’t get a proper answer. "No, that's not what I mean!"
"I know."
"You..." Seulgi’s voice faltered. "...You haven't changed."
The woman blinks at her. "I've changed."
"...How?"
"I've started moisturizing." The woman finally walks toward Seulgi and sets the tea down beside the futon.
Seulgi’s eyes follow her movements.
"I'm serious!" she groans.
"So am I." The woman now sits beside her.
"You're telling me..." She thrust the paper toward the stranger. "...that this missing poster..."
The woman just looks at her.
"is decades old..." Seulgi is trying so hard to piece everything together. What on earth is this woman beside her. "and you still look exactly like this?"
The stranger pretended to think. Her lips curling into a teasing smile. "I've had a very effective skincare routine."
"Aloevera." The woman raised one finger.
Seulgi blinks.
"Occasional murder." A second finger.
"And eight hours of sleep." A third.
Seulgi stared at her.
"...You're insane."
"That's one possibility." The woman moves closer as she sips her tea. She encourages Seulgi to do the same. Not threateningly, but comfortably.
Like closing the distance between them was just natural, like they’ve known each other for so long.
The woman reached for the flyer as Seulgi sips her chamomile tea, which was actually very good. Even better than her grandmother’s, no offense.
Their fingers brushed for a moment. Cold, Seulgi thinks.
The woman unfolded the paper completely. Studying the print with a soft expression.
“…I remember this.”
“You do?” Seulgi puts down her mug.
“I remembered how ugly the font was.” The woman said and made a disgusted face.
Despite all of it, Seulgi laughed. It escaped her mouth before she could even stop it.
The woman looked pleased. The smile lingering on Seulgi’s lips faded as she looked back at the photograph.
“…How?” she’s still waiting for an answer. “How are you still…”
“Alive?” The woman finished gently.
“…Beautiful?” Seulgi finished her sentence without thinking.
The words hung between them.
The woman looks at Seulgi with softness, devoid of the playfulness and teasing nature of her usual gaze. Heat then rushed to Seulgi’s face.
“I didn’t mean—”
“I know.” The woman smiled, softer than before. “But thank you…”
Silence settled between them.
Then, the woman leans closer to Seulgi, close enough that Seulgi instinctively leaned back.
“…You’re still not afraid?” The woman whispers. “you’ve just discovered the woman from your childhood hasn’t aged a day.”
Her dark eyes now turned into amber eyes.
“Most people would be screaming by now…” She searched Seulgi’s eyes with playful curiosity.
“…Should I be?” Seulgi asks quietly.
“I don’t know.” The woman leaned in. Slowly, and consciously, as if teasing Seulgi is as instinctive as breathing. She leaned close enough that Seulgi could feel the coolness of her breath.
“What do you think I am?”
Seulgi swallowed. “…A vampire?... I guess.”
The stranger wrinkled her nose. Offended at the statement. “They’re pretentious.”
“What?”
“They think immortality is a personality. As if that’s something great.” There’s an ick in the woman’s tone.
Seulgi couldn’t help but smile.
The woman noticed immediately and smiles back.
“Warmer.” Instead of answering, the woman leaned closer.
Far too close. Close enough that Seulgi caught the scent of chamomile, Aloevera, and the mist lingering on her clothes.
“…Then what?”
The woman’s smile curved into something unmistakably fox-like. Undeniably mischievous, patient, and spitefully playful. As if she’d been waiting for centuries for someone to ask.
The woman tilted her head. Her smile remained impossibly gentle. She parted her lips, just slightly. Not much but just enough to show the ivory fangs slowly into view.
Sharp, almost delicate. Far too long to belong to any human mouth.
Seulgi forgot how to breathe.
The woman leaned even closer, close enough that their noses almost brushed.
“Foxes,” she murmured. “…have much better manners.”
"If I wanted to kiss you..." Her voice dropped to little more than a whisper. "I'd probably ask first."
The stranger’s gaze flickered briefly to Seulgi’s lips before returning to look into her eyes. "If I wanted to eat you..."
She smiled. "...I wouldn't."
Seulgi's face burned. She forgot how to answer.
“You…You’re doing that on purpose.” Seulgi shot back.
“What?”
“Always leaning close.”
The woman blinked innocently. “I thought humans liked eye contact.”
“That wasn’t eye contact…” Seulgi protested.
“No?”
“No!”
“…Shame then.” The woman laughed quietly before she leaned back away from Seulgi’s red face. She looks entirely too pleased with herself. “You blush very easily.”
“I do not.”
“You do.”
Seulgi looked away before the woman could notice how quickly her heart had begun racing.
Just ridiculous.
“A gumiho. That’s what I am just in case you don’t know what’s it called.” The woman answers matter-of-factly.
Silence.
“…Okay.” Seulgi answers.
“…That’s it?” the woman sounded somewhat offended.
“You’re supposed to scream.”
“…I’m too tired.” Seulgi answers back. She sips some of the tea before she decided to lay down again. She still doesn’t believe this woman completely. She could be a cosplayer for all she knows.
“Fair enough…” She’s prepared for fear, not indifference. This seemed new.
A beat.
“Bae Joohyun.” The woman finally has a name, extends her hand to Seulgi. “I’ve had other names, but I like that one best.”
Seulgi reciprocates and takes Joohyun’s hand and shakes it once. “Kang Seulgi.”
“I know” Joohyun smiles. “I read your driver’s license.”
“You went through my wallet?!” Seulgi immediately let go of the gumiho’s hand.
“I’m a fox. We tend to snoop around a lot.” Joohyun laughs, the real one.
“You’re like…lowkey insufferable.”
“Lowkey?” Joohyun echoed, the unfamiliar word lingering on her tongue.
"It's just... a way of saying 'kind of.'" Seulgi explains simply.
"So, I'm kind of insufferable?"
"...No." Seulgi sighed. "You're very insufferable."
Joohyun laughs again. She didn’t protest at that.
Seulgi should have been terrified. Instead, she couldn’t stop noticing how beautiful Joohyun is. It was deeply inconvenient.
Joohyun watched her for a moment, the teasing faded from her expression. Replaced by something quieter, deeper.
“If I let you walk out that door today…” Joohyun starts, she gestures toward beyond the cabin. “…Will you climb back to that cliff?”
Seulgi didn’t answer. She didn’t need to. Joohyun already knew.
After a long silence, Joohyun spoke again “What if I offered you another ending?”
Seulgi looked up at her.
“I’m not promising happiness.” Joohyun tells her honestly. The first time she had ever sounded genuine when it comes to persuading her. “I’m not promising redemption. And I’m certainly not promising safety.”
Seulgi continues to listen. And she thinks.
“I can barely promise you’ll eat regular meals.” A small smile tugged at Joohyun’s lips.
“…But” Joohyun extended her hand once more. It was no longer the hand of a stranger introducing herself, but one quietly asking Seulgi to choose.
An invitation.
“If you’re tired of the story you’ve been living…”
Despite her exhaustion, Seulgi smiled. It was small, but it carried weight.
"Come write the next chapter with me?" Joohyun asked, almost shyly.There was nothing hidden behind the invitation, just quiet sincerity.
Something Seulgi had forgotten still existed. She looked at the offered hand, then at the woman attached to it.
A stranger. A possible murderer. A self-proclaimed gumiho whose eyes seemed older than the mountains.
Every sensible instinct she still possesses tells her to refuse the offer. Instead, she heard herself ask, “…Where would we go?”
“Oh…” Joohyun’s grin widened. Without another word, she laced their fingers together as though Seulgi had already accepted the offer.
“I have dinner plans.” Joohyun starts. “You’ll meet some very unpleasant men…”
Seulgi knits her eyebrows, half confused, half curious. She lets go of Joohyun's soft yet cold hand.
"And afterwards..." Joohyun glanced at Seulgi. "I'll show you the country. I know some very nice spots."
She inspected her nails with practiced nonchalance. But Seulgi sees a glint of hope in there.
Silence.
And Seulgi laughs softly. The sound surprising them both.
“Fine…” Seulgi says, finally agreeing.
“Fine?”
“I don’t exactly have anything waiting for me anyways.” Seulgi shrugs. There really was nothing to lose anymore.
For the first time, Joohyun’s smile lost its teasing edge. It became unexpectedly warm “Let’s collect your things then.”
The smile never leaving Joohyun’s face.
An hour later, they stood together inside Seulgi’s grandmother’s weathered house.
Joohyun wandered slowly through each room, running gentle fingers along the old, cracked, wooden beams and faded furniture as though greeting an old friend.
“This house loved you… I can tell.” Joohyun murmurs quietly, but loud enough for Seulgi to hear.
Seulgi froze. No one, except her grandmother, had ever spoken about a place like that before. For a fleeting moment, it sounded as though Joohyun knew that feeling just as well.
Joohyun looks back at her, an empathetic smile matching it with. "You don't have to say anything. I feel exactly the same way about my cabin."
A quiet laugh escapes her lips. “My shabby little place.”
Seulgi smiles at that.
"So..." Joohyun said softly. "Let's make sure you come back here."
Together, they packed what little Seulgi had. It didn't take long. Something about that unsettled Joohyun.
A few clothes, some toiletries, her phone’s charger, her sketchbook, a photograph of her grandmother for safe-keeping, and… the two faded flyers. She said nothing, only smiling to herself before picking up the box while Seulgi carried her duffel bag toward the car tucked away in the mountains, just beyond the house.
“Sorry, I usually don’t like people seeing my car.” Joohyun says as they walk the familiar mountain path.
“It’s okay, I don’t mind walking.” Seulgi says. No protest left in her.
Joohyun smiles. Appreciates Seulgi for being understanding.
Joohyun closed the trunk with enough force to make sure it's properly locked after placing Seulgi’s box there. She turns to look at Seulgi, twirling the car keys around a finger.
“So?”
Seulgi looks at her, raising an eyebrow.
“Would you like to rewrite your life?” the gumiho asked, as though she were inviting Seulgi out for a late-night ramyeon instead of whatever this absurd conversation had become.
Seulgi looked beyond the woods. Hearing the far-off sound of the waterfall. The current continued without her, indifferent and endless. It would’ve accepted her just as easily. Then she looks back at the beautiful stranger standing before her.
At her infuriating, yet beautiful face. At the smile that carried centuries with embarrassing ease. At her impossibly dark eyes that occasionally shimmered with something amber, with something inhuman whenever the light struck them wrong.
“Okay…” Seulgi hears herself say.
Joohyun’s smile deepened. “Wonderful.”
She turned and walked with effortless elegance toward the driver's seat, Seulgi trailing behind before slipping into the passenger's seat.
Joohyun closes the driver’s seat door and says, “I happen to be hungry.”
“You don’t mean…” Seulgi still doesn’t know if Joohyun is telling the truth about being… a fox.
“I do.” Joohyun says, simple and flat.
Seulgi stared at her. Noticing how beautiful Joohyun’s side profile is.
“You actually eat…people?”
Joohyun tilted her head, pretending to think. “Only unpleasant ones.”
“That’s…not reassuring.” Seulgi leans back on the headrest.
“It wasn’t meant to be.” Joohyun laughs before starting the car.
“Can’t believe I just got into a car with someone who says they’re a gumiho.” Seulgi thinks out loud.
Joohyun rested an elbow on the steering wheel, a soft smile tugging at her lips. "I did save your life."
“You also said you were considering eating me.” Seulgi looks at her with tired eyes.
“I considered many things. But I chose kindness.” Joohyun’s teasing smile never leaving her face. “You should appreciate how rare that is these days.”
"And you're my emergency food." Joohyun smiled, though there was a seriousness beneath her playful tone. “Just in case I get very hungry.”
Despite feeling tired, Seulgi laughed. It surprised the both of them. Joohyun looked almost pleased.
"You look so much prettier when you laugh." The words left Joohyun before she could stop them. For someone who always spoke with elegant certainty, it was the first time she'd blurted out something she'd meant to keep to herself.
The words lingered longer than they should have. Seulgi felt her face grow warm and turned away before Joohyun could notice.
“You flirt with everyone you’re about to eat?” Seulgi says, staring at a random tree beyond the car. Looking at everything just to not meet the woman’s gaze.
“No.” Joohyun’s answer came quickly.
“I usually eat first.” And then a teasing one.
“You’re impossible.” Seulgi sighs.
“I’ve been called worse.” Joohyun laughs.
Silence settled between them, the sound of the AC being the only thing that surrounds them.
"What if you... change your mind about me halfway there?" Seulgi asked, finally meeting Joohyun's gaze.
Joohyun looked at her for a long, quiet moment. She could have blamed it on her fox senses. Instead, she realized Seulgi was simply that easy to read.
Something unreadable passed through Joohyun’s face, then it softens into her infamous teasing smile.
"Don't worry." Her voice was unusually gentle.
"I'll return you, whole."
Joohyun shifted the car into gear and pressed the accelerator, moving them away from the mountain.
For reasons Seulgi couldn’t explain, those words stuck with her somewhere beneath her ribs.
Whole.
As though there was still something inside her worth returning.
She glanced at Joohyun. Noticing the elegant line of her jaw. Her lips that smiled like they knew far more than they ever intended to confess. Her eyes that were old enough to have watched kingdoms disappear and modern cities be built, and yet there’s still that mischievous look when she teases her.
Beautiful isn’t enough to describe her. Beautiful was meant for something like movie stars, paintings, cities.
Joohyun was something stranger. The kind of beauty that kept old folklore alive for centuries. The kind people built warnings around, whispered into rumors, and passed from one generation to the next. And the kind of beauty children folded carefully and hid beneath loose floorboards because they couldn’t bear to throw her picture away.
I’ll return you, whole.
Seulgi thinks she didn’t have to. Joohyun didn’t have to.
If the woman wanted a piece of her, piece of her to feed on—her liver, perhaps…even her heart.
Seulgi wasn’t entirely sure she’d resist.
It was an absurd thought. Hell, even a dangerous one. Getting into a beautiful, haunting stranger’s car should have terrified her. A woman who calmy admitted that she’s a man-eating fox should have sent every survival instinct screaming. Instead, it felt strangely exciting.
Her life had already fallen apart. If she was going to make one catastrophically bad decision, it might as well involve the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen.
Seulgi didn’t know where they were going. She still doesn’t know who—or what—Joohyun really is. She certainly didn’t know that she would become an accomplice to a monster’s hunt.
All Seulgi knew was that, for the first time in weeks, tomorrow no longer felt dreadful.
Oddly enough...
She thought that might be better than dying.
...