A/N: First off, I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter to you, but it's a long one! In case you missed it, I posted two more chapters to Good Girl, Bad Fox and a one-shot titled Bubbles that goes along with this story. If you are a SoEul fan, I and some other writers are posting a multi-chapter story for Halloween this month and next month; it's titled Sorrows for a SoEulmate, and that is also listed under my stories.

Special thanks to InHwa, LilisLittleRose, and KLSoEul for helping me edit this and some other chapters this year!

I am going to take a break from this fic until February 2023. I'm doing NaNoWriMo again in November; the Christmas holidays will probably be crazy because they always are; and I'll be traveling a lot in January. To make sure I have time to work on some other writing projects I have going, I just need to set this aside for a bit, as much as I hate to be away from this lovely couple. But fear not! I will return in the new year with the following:

Girls' Night with Ga Eul & Yu Ri

Cosplay Convention

'Ghosts' of the Past

More Angst & Character Growth & Relationship Growth (feelings, feelings, etc.)

BUT I will be posting another chapter of Good Girl, Bad Fox before I go on my break!

For further updates or to see if I'm alive, you can follow me on Instagram at jodimarie2910.

My original writing updates are at jodimariewrites.

Okay, enjoy! :)


Two Weeks Later

"This is going to be so much fun!" Ga Eul exclaimed as Rang trudged behind her in his light pink suit jacket and black-and-white striped dress shirt, carrying half of her school supplies. She'd chosen a pink cardigan and a black-and-white dress for their outing that day—so they could participate in that human custom of matching outfits, he guessed. Outwardly, he made no observation of this fact, but secretly, he enjoyed it. They'd parked his car at her school and were now walking up to the building, bound for a day of—Rang shuddered inwardly—chaperoning.

Not that Ga Eul had worn him down with her pouting and pleading or that he'd decided to go for Soo-oh's benefit—he could see his puppy whenever he liked, without the addition of thirty other miniature humans. It was just that the more he'd thought about it, the more he'd realized that he had an opportunity to show off the fact that Ga Eul was his and if the other humans at her school had any ideas about her they ought to forget them faster than they could blink.

On a smaller note, she was inviting him into her world—the one she disappeared to half of the week—and he kind of wanted to see, firsthand, what a human field trip was like, simply because she seemed so excited about it.

Rang was curious; that was all. There was nothing inherently interesting about a human school whatsoever...and yet, it was a tiny bit interesting since it was a space Ga Eul inhabited.

Also, Ga Eul had given him a stronger hug than he thought possible to receive from a human when he'd told her he would go. Then she'd petted him on the head and said that she liked her pet fox very much.

As they passed through the halls, Ga Eul said 'hello' to a few colleagues and introduced Rang as her boyfriend, and though he would rather not interact with humans beyond absolute necessity, when someone delightedly suggested that Ga Eul bring him to eat and drink with them on one of their coworker outings, an odd feeling of warmth struck his chest. He swallowed it down and kept his comments brief. Rang felt awkward invading a human space with no ulterior motives. To make things weirder, people were smiling and greeting him warmly when they met him for no reason other than he was Ga Eul's boyfriend. This exchange of greetings reminded him of when he'd lived with Yeon and his brother's servants and visitors had always treated him well, not because he had any sort of status on his own account but because he was Yeon's brother. Or half-brother, anyway.

Now, as then, he belonged, but he didn't belong.

The weight of his couple's ring still felt strange on the ring finger of his right hand—like an artificial limb he hadn't adjusted to yet. He was still waiting for the ring to leave a blister, the swollen red skin evidence that he wasn't fit to wear it.

They had arrived too early for class, so Ga Eul led Rang to her small office cubicle and procured an extra chair for him. Fiddling aimlessly—nervously—with his phone, he watched her type on her computer, her own couple ring proudly displayed on her right hand, while they waited for her students to arrive.

After a few minutes of typing and shuffling through various items on her desk, Ga Eul turned to Rang and handed him a rectangular white sticker with blue border. When he looked down at it, he saw his name on the sticker, inscribed with her neat penmanship: Lee Rang.

"That's your name tag," she explained, smoothing a similar sticker with her name onto the chest of her pink cardigan. "So the kids and the other chaperones can remember what to call you. You can put it anywhere on your clothes where it will be easy for them to see. I'll be right back. I just have to make a few copies." Ga Eul got up and disappeared around the corner, and then he couldn't see her anymore due to the tall dividers separating her desk from those of the other teachers.

Left alone, with the office chatter and the thrum of copy and fax machines in the background, Rang felt even more out of his element than before. He needed to do something to feel like himself, to regain some control over the situation.

Besides, the field trip was bound to be terribly boring. He ought to find some source of entertainment.

Realizing what he should do, Rang tore a blank name tag from the roll of stickers on Ga Eul's desk.

He peeked around the corner to make sure Ga Eul wasn't coming back. Seeing that she was still standing by the copy machine, he grinned and snatched a blue pen from her black wire pencil holder.

He wrote on the new sticker, laughing at his own joke, and tossed his 'Lee Rang' name tag into the trash. When Ga Eul returned around the corner, carrying a stack of papers, he quickly hid his new name tag inside his coat pocket.

"Sorry about that. We can go now," she said cheerfully.

"Oh?" Rang smiled, more at ease now that he had a trick up his sleeve. "Let's go."

He accepted the papers Ga Eul handed to him and waited while she gathered up the rest of her supplies. Then they set off down the hall, which was now filled with children chaotically milling about and yelling at one another. Rang winced at the sudden onslaught of noise. One older kid jostled him, and he nearly hoisted the boy up by the collar of his shirt and hauled him against the wall.

At the last second, he didn't, mainly because Ga Eul latched gently onto his suit jacket sleeve and tugged him away. She motioned for him to follow her down another hallway.

Stupid kid. He ought to be glad Rang was trying not to upset Ga Eul.

Of course, he had no problem winding her up.

"Hey. Since you're the teacher, and I'm your boyfriend, does that mean I'm also in charge?" Rang asked as they turned another corner.

"Well, you're an adult, and you're a chaperone, so...of course, you're in charge."

"But I mean above the other chaperones. I'm on the same level as you, right? Like when someone marries into the royal family?"

Ga Eul laughed.

"Not exactly. You're on the same level as the other chaperones. There's no...hierarchy...among you."

"Well, that doesn't seem right," Rang complained. "As your boyfriend, I should get special privileges." After all, he'd gotten to sit in her office, and he was carrying half of her stuff. He should be allowed to boss the other chaperones around too.

"You want to be in charge of the students? Fully in charge?" Ga Eul laughed again. "Be my guest. We'll see if you last until the end of the day."

Rang scoffed.

"You think I can't handle a couple of kids? Maybe you can't imagine this since I'm nice to you, but I'm actually a very scary person," he stated proudly.

"Oh, I believe you, but…" Ga Eul paused in front of her classroom door. "Kids can be a different kind of scary." She leaned in and winked conspiratorially, and Rang didn't have time to ask what she meant by that before the door swung open and the clamor of thirty children talking over one another greeted them.

The kids quieted down when Ga Eul entered, however, and collectively stood to say 'good morning' to her, and Rang felt a swell of pride at being her boyfriend then. As he had noted, she was the person in charge.


Some time later, while Ga Eul gave last minute instructions about where they were headed, Rang found himself standing along the wall of the classroom with Yu Ri and two other mothers who would be chaperoning the trip. Ga Eul had passed out the papers Rang had been carrying, the ones she'd copied earlier. Apparently, that was their itinerary for the day. At present, Rang was folding his itinerary into a paper airplane, eager for the opportune moment to sail it into the back of someone's head on a gust of fox enchantment.

He always hit his target.

On the other side of the classroom, Soo-oh kept glancing over at Rang, mouthing 'ahjussi,' and giving a secret hand signal that Rang couldn't decode. He frowned and jerked his head in Ga Eul's direction—probably she was saying something important, though Rang hadn't been paying attention—and the boy pouted and faced his teacher once more.

Having finished his paper plane, and finding nothing else to do, Rang shuffled his feet, tucked the airplane into his pants pocket, and tuned into Ga Eul's lecture.

The words of the lecture didn't interest him so much, but the sunny, charismatic figure delivering them did. Before meeting Ga Eul, with the exception of his brother, he hadn't known someone could be commanding and kind simultaneously. In his experience, kindness always coincided with weakness; a person could be feared or loved, but not both.

So he watched Ga Eul, not paying attention to what she was saying but how she was saying it. Her words were firm but gentle, and she wore an open, non-threatening smile. Yet her posture was confident, like someone used to being in charge, and Rang found the revelation of this new side of Ga Eul to be quite thrilling. He was innocently observing her at first, but soon his mind drifted to naughtier scenarios in which Ga Eul being in charge played a prominent role. Startled by some of his thoughts and eager to calm his quickly reacting body, he distracted himself by mumbling to Yu Ri, "You put her up to this, didn't you?"

"What?" Yu Ri whispered.

"You told her to make me a chaperone," Rang clarified.

"No," Yu Ri protested. "She wanted to invite you, but I said you wouldn't come." Yu Ri smiled. "You must really like her, right?"

Rang could feel himself blushing—from Yu Ri's suggestion and his earlier inappropriate thoughts—and muttered, "I came to see what my brother was making such a fuss about. Didn't he take care of enough plants in his lifetime already?" Rang crossed his arms and looked ahead, past the heads of the students and out the window to the playground beyond. He purposefully zoned out, letting himself slip into memories of Lee Yeon teaching him which plants were poisonous to the touch and which plants were safe to eat and which plants bloomed during each season. He only remembered bits and pieces of his brother's lectures now, dimmed as they were by age. But he did remember pieces because for the longest time all he'd had of his brother were memories, so he'd turned those over and over in his mind, trying not to forget a single word Lee Yeon had spoken.


True to her word, Su Gyeong made sure she and Rang ate meat every day, and Rang tried not to think too hard about where she got some of it from. She did most of the hunting on her own—she'd promised to teach him how to hunt, but for now, she said he'd just slow her down, so Rang's daily tasks involved things like gathering firewood and scouting ahead for travelers and keeping a lookout at night.

They were always walking, never staying in one spot for too long, and today they'd been eating berries and flowers they found along their path up a mountain. Su Gyeong said there was a village on the other side of the mountain where they could stock up on supplies.

Rang had a feeling she meant 'steal supplies.'

Regardless, he hoped a visit to the village also meant they could eat naengmyeon. He missed the cold noodles he'd eaten so frequently at his brother's table.

Suddenly, up ahead, Rang saw Su Gyeong pluck a few petals from a purple flower.

Monkshood.

Rang's eyes grew wide. He charged ahead and snatched the petals from Su Gyeong's hand, only to be pinned to the forest floor seconds later.

Su Gyeong bent over him, her hand on his throat, pressing down on his windpipe, for a moment longer than he felt was necessary, but she finally released him. He rubbed his throat as he sat up. His head and back hurt from where he'd been abruptly flipped over and had landed in the dirt, soiling his filthy hanbok further.

"What the hell was that?! Get your own food!" Su Gyeong berated him.

"Those are poisonous!" Rang cried, pointing at the fallen petals. "My brother taught me."

Su Gyeong scoffed.

"I eat these all the time."

"What?"

She rolled her eyes.

"They're poisonous to humans, so maybe to you, yes." The full fox snatched another petal off the plant and carelessly tossed it into her mouth. Rang waited, still sitting on the ground, for her to show signs of poisoning.

None came.

They stared at each other until Su Gyeong gasped and declared, "Oh, wow, look! I'm not dead! Honestly, you're so dramatic sometimes." She paused, twisting her mouth into a deadly smirk. "I dare you to eat one." She lifted a finger.

Rang wanted to say that the poison hadn't had time to set in. But then, she'd said that she ate that plant all the time.

Lee Yeon had always said monkshood was poisonous, but maybe he'd been thinking about the fact that Rang was human.

The soldier's sword hadn't killed Rang. Maybe the plant wouldn't kill him either.

Summoning his courage, Rang stood and plucked one petal for himself. He stared at it for a second, then shoved it into his mouth, trying not to think too hard about his decision.

The flower tasted bitter, and he wanted to spit it out simply for that reason, but he chewed and swallowed. Maybe he was only a half-fox, but he wasn't a baby, though Su Gyeong often accused him of being one. And maybe this was some type of test to see how brave he was—if he passed, maybe she'd teach him to hunt like she'd promised.

Su Gyeong was smiling at him, looking quite satisfied with herself, and he didn't know if that was because she knew he wouldn't die or if she didn't care if he died if that meant she could do something he couldn't.

A moment passed; then she announced, "You might experience some nausea in a few hours. You might feel hot, and your face will go numb for a bit, but after that, you'll be all right."

Rang paled, panic setting in.

"I thought you said it wasn't poisonous!"

Su Gyeong gave a condescending little laugh.

"Of course, it's poisonous. Even for foxes. Your brother was right about that. But you won't die from eating one petal. You'll feel sick for a while, but you can build up a tolerance to it. Like me. That way, even if someone tries to kill you with it, they can't." As if to prove her point, the fox girl plucked two more petals and tossed them in her mouth.

Rang didn't know how she stood to eat the foul-tasting plant.

"I eat a little bit every day," she explained after she'd swallowed the petals, and then, as if she knew what he was thinking, added, winking, "You grow to like the taste."


"And now, I'd like to introduce the adults who are chaperoning today's field trip." The rise in volume of Ga Eul's voice jolted Rang back to the present, and he locked eyes with her, momentarily, as she motioned to the group of adults he found himself in. She introduced the woman furthest from Rang as Kim So Rim and the woman standing next to Yu Ri as Im Seon Ae. The two women appeared to be older than Yu Ri and himself and were dressed in skirts and blouses that he could tell were more for comfort than style. They were probably married, but nonetheless, he'd noticed them eyeballing him earlier. He'd been introduced to them, of course, and that was fine, but if they later tried to wrestle him into a conversation, he was going to suddenly find himself very, very occupied with whatever chaperoning meant. He'd take his chances with the whole pack of miniature humans over two nosy, gossipy ahjummas.

Having introduced Yu Ri, Ga Eul turned her attention to Rang, but paused and raised her eyebrows before speaking.

Ah. She'd spotted his name tag.

Rang beamed.

"And this is my boyfriend, Mister Lee Rang," Ga Eul continued slowly. "But according to his name tag, you may call him 'dongsaeng ahjussi.'" She smiled good-naturedly at the class.

Several of the students giggled, as Rang had predicted they would.

Dongsaeng ahjussi. Mister Little Brother.

"That's right. He thinks he's funny, so make sure to laugh," Ga Eul encouraged, and the remainder of the class laughed.

"It's my first day of school," Rang offered, "so you are all my sunbaes. I don't know any of the rules, so you have to teach me."

"Oh?" Ga Eul gave a little gasp, playing along. "I hope everyone remembers our class rules then. Be good to our chaperones, especially to your dongsaeng ahjussi here. You must teach him well. Okay, class?"

"Yes, seonsaengnim," the class collectively chorused.

"Now let's say 'thank you' to our chaperones for going on this trip."

Per Ga Eul's instructions, the kids thanked the chaperones, their voices ringing a little too loud and too high for Rang's taste.

He winced.

Ga Eul announced it was time to go out to the bus, and he winced again, realizing he'd be stuck inside a vehicle listening to their high, whiny voices for however long it took to get to the gardens.


"Ahjussi! Ahjussi! Come sit with me!" Soo-oh tugged on Rang's jacket sleeve as he stood in line for the bus a few minutes later, uncomfortably close to all those kids in uniforms buzzing with energy, while Ga Eul spoke to the bus driver. Rang had been assigned a group of six students to look after once they arrived at the gardens—four boys and two girls—and Yu Ri had been assigned a set of three boys and three girls. Rang's set included Soo-oh and the little boy that Soo-oh now pushed towards Rang; he was slightly shorter than Soo-oh and had bangs that fell into his eyes when he leaned over.

"This is my best friend, Ha Min Jae," Soo-oh informed him. "He's super cool. He can play guitar."

"Oh? I can play guitar too," Rang assured his puppy.

"Really? But I've never seen you play."

"Just because you've never seen it doesn't mean I can't."

"I've never seen you play either," Yu Ri added, unhelpfully. She was standing next to Rang, twisting back and forth in her bright green dress and studying the itinerary they'd been given. Tapping Rang's arm, Yu Ri asked, "Mister Lee Rang, what does it mean 'make hypotheses?' Do we make things with the plants? Like a cooking class?"

"What?" Rang frowned at the paper she was holding and studied the sentence she pointed to, but before he could answer, Min Jae answered for him—nosy kid.

"It means we have to answer questions. Chu Seonsaengnim always makes us answer questions. She says we have to fill out these." Min Jae showed Rang the papers he was holding—well, that explained why all the kids were holding papers and pencils; Rang had thought they were merely being students—and he snatched them up. The papers had a bunch of questions like the ones he often saw Ga Eul grading—quizzes, he guessed.

"You have to take exams during a trip?" Rang asked, wrinkling his nose. "I thought this was supposed to be a fun day."

Min Jae shrugged.

"I have worksheets too," Soo-oh offered, holding his papers up.

"Give me those." Rang snatched up Soo-oh's papers and sifted through them.

Plants. Plants. Plants. Roots. Plants.

Honestly, what the hell was so fascinating about plants?!

If Rang was in charge of this class, he would teach them fun things, like sword-fighting.

"Oh!" Yu Ri exclaimed, peering over Rang's shoulder. "There's that word again. 'Hypothesize,'" she sounded out, tapping the word on one of the worksheets, but Ga Eul interrupted her next thought by announcing it was time to get on the bus.

Great.

So far, the day was looking duller than even Rang had anticipated.

He boarded the bus with Soo-oh and Min Jae and would have sat next to Ga Eul, but the two boys tugged him towards the very back of the bus where there were three seats joined together instead of the typical two. Rang sat next to the window, and the boys took the other two seats, chatting excitedly among themselves. After Ga Eul talked a bit more at the front of the bus, she sat down at the front next to Yu Ri, and the bus began moving. It was then that Rang noticed he still had both boys' worksheets in his hands.

Remembering the paper plane he'd made earlier, an idea struck him. For the first time since they'd left the classroom, he smiled.

He handed the worksheets back to the boys.

"Make as many paper airplanes out of those as you can," he instructed. "But don't do anything with them yet."

Soo-oh, who was used to going along with Rang's schemes, immediately began folding the paper with an enthusiastic grin, but Min Jae looked skeptical.

"But Chu Seonsaengnim—"

"Is my girlfriend. If I say it's okay, it's okay."

"Just make them," Soo-oh urged. "He knows the best games."

"We're making a stockpile of weapons," Rang explained. "Since you brought a backpack"—he motioned to the blue backpack Min Jae had set on the floor of the bus—"you can be in charge of safeguarding the weapons."

"But who are we going to attack?" Min Jae asked.

"You'll see," Rang answered cryptically, grinning as he surveyed the passing scenery.


"A hypothesis is an idea based on evidence—uh, things we already know—that we can test and try to prove beyond doubt," Ga Eul explained as she sat next to Yu Ri on the way to the gardens. "For example"—she searched for an example Yu Ri would understand—"if you close your eyes, and I hand you something to drink, and you take a sip of it, and it tastes like coffee, you could make a hypothesis that the drink is coffee. And then you could test your hypothesis by opening your eyes and looking at it. Does that make sense?"

"Ahhh." Yu Ri nodded her head emphatically. "It's like when you eat someone's liver, and you can guess how much alcohol they drink by how fatty it is."

Ga Eul's eyes widened a bit, and she surreptitiously glanced around to see if the other chaperones, who were sitting across the aisle from them, had overheard Yu Ri, but they were chatting among themselves.

Well, Yu Ri had grasped the concept. She couldn't fault her for that.

Ga Eul smiled.

"Yes. It's exactly like that."

Yu Ri grinned and clapped her hands together, bouncing in her seat.

"I'm doing good at this 'being human' thing," she announced confidently. "Aren't I?"

"Well, you're chaperoning a field trip, and not many human parents do that, so I'd say you are doing a very good job."

"So what do we do once we get to the gardens? Do we write on these first?" Yu Ri held up her itinerary.

"First, we go on a tour of the gardens. Mister Lee Yeon is leading that. And then the students have to answer the questions on their worksheets. It's kind of like hunting. The answers are spread out all over the gardens, and they have to look for them there. If you want, your group can stay with my group, and we can look for the answers together."

Yu Ri nodded.

"We should make it a race to see who can find everything the fastest," she urged, tapping her fingers, her eyes wide.

Ga Eul laughed.

"Okay. The students would like that."

The bus lurched as the driver turned a corner and went over a bump in the road, and Ga Eul gripped the back of her seat. She took the opportunity to glance at Rang, Soo-oh, and Min Jae; they were sitting quietly in the back of the bus, perfectly behaved. Rang was staring out the window. She hoped he wasn't too bored. At least he didn't look bothered by all the noise in the bus.

She'd have to see how he was holding up once they reached the gardens, but for the moment she turned back around in her seat and restarted her conversation with Yu Ri. It was nice to have a friend on the trip too.


The botanical gardens consisted of three main sections: an outdoor traditional Korean garden with native plants, a greenhouse hosting plants from twelve global cities in the Mediterranean and tropical climates, and a cultural center. Additionally, there was a child garden school and a plant research facility. Walking trails wound between these buildings through a forested area, a lake, and a marsh.

The garden grounds were located on land that had been covered with rice paddies in the not-so-distant past. One lone wooden structure remained of that bygone era—a drainage pumping station built during the Japanese occupation that had been converted into the cultural center.

Rang had never understood the human urge to preserve old buildings. It wasn't like the humans who were born in the next few decades would truly understand what the buildings meant. That was the flaw of the human lifespan. Among other flaws.

If Rang closed his eyes, though, he could remember rice paddies as far as the eye could see, and no high rises whatsoever. Sometimes he missed the fields, all that green.

But life went on and on, without stopping, and the fields were gone, perhaps never to return. What he remembered—how much he remembered—didn't matter, not really. That was the flaw in living forever. Whatever 'forever' meant.

At present, Rang, along with the class and the rest of the chaperones, had ended up at the greenhouse—a steel-reinforced glass building in the shape of a lotus leaf—after a never-ending walking tour with Rang's brother—Yeon was now an employee instead of a volunteer—who kept looking at Rang during the traditional garden section like he expected to see recognition in his brother's face whenever he mentioned a plant that had grown in their forest. Rang had merely raised an eyebrow and tried to look extra bored. He'd thrown in a couple of yawns for effect. Not that those had been too hard. He'd gotten up too early that morning, and there was more walking involved in the outing than he had planned for.

Rang should have been happy, then, when Ga Eul announced they would be staying put for a while inside the greenhouse, but the greenhouse was far too warm for his liking—torturously so. And as they stood in the center of the vast complex, surrounded by way too many palm trees that needed their stupid humidity, Rang wished they could have visited an ice sculpture garden instead. Meanwhile, Soo-oh couldn't wait to go on the sky bridge—way up at the top of the building where it was sure to be even warmer.

Rang shuddered. This outing was like having summer come early.

He'd removed his pink suit jacket, but his striped dress shirt clung to him uncomfortably. As the group had wandered in, he'd longed for an iced coffee from the café outside the greenhouse, and now he wanted an iced anything from the café inside, but Ga Eul was rambling on about the students' worksheets again, and he couldn't sneak away with her glancing at him every other second. He'd just had to say 'yes' to her request. He wanted to kick himself.

When the group finally dispersed, Ga Eul approached him with a worried expression, leaving her group of students with Yu Ri's group.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "Sorry, I forgot it would be so warm in here."

"And wet," Rang noted testily. He scrunched his face in disapproval and tugged at his shirt collar.

"Yes." Ga Eul grimaced and bowed her head sheepishly.

"I don't know how my brother—" Rang cut himself off.

His brother was human now. Right. The humidity probably didn't bother him anymore. At least, not so intensely.

Humans and their stupid biology.

But wasn't Yu Ri sweltering as well? Why wasn't she complaining? She was talking to some of the kids, seemingly unbothered.

"Iced coffee," he mourned, pouting. He stared forlornly in the direction of the café.

Ga Eul glanced behind her at the café and then back at Rang and the kids standing nearby, restlessly waiting for them to finish their conversation.

"As soon as this part is over, I promise we'll have lunch outside in the park, and you can get all the iced coffee you want," Ga Eul soothed. "Can you wait thirty minutes?"

Rang shot Ga Eul a horrified look.

Thirty minutes? Only thirty minutes? Why didn't she just make him stay in this hellish building all day?

Rang would have protested more, but his brother was fast approaching the group, so he redirected his efforts at the former fox.

"Hyung," Rang begged, "get me an iced coffee from over there." He pointed at the café. "I've been chaperoning all day."

"And I've been working all day. You don't see me drinking iced coffee, do you? You don't see Miss Ga Eul drinking iced coffee," Yeon scolded, as imperious as ever despite his horrible new wardrobe and the fact that he worked at the bottom of a human organization. His brother was dressed in a light green polo with the darker green logo of the park stitched above his left breast, along with the words 'staff member.'

"I have an idea!" Ga Eul suggested brightly. Too brightly. Rang's head hurt. "Why don't you let your brother show your group around the exhibits? I'm going to help Yu Ri's group. Is that okay?"

Yeon eagerly agreed, and Rang glanced between Ga Eul and his brother, feeling trapped and suffocated by them and the kids and the climate, but after a moment, he grudgingly acquiesced, such was the effect Ga Eul had on him.

Damn it.

They started with the tropical plants on the sky bridge that Soo-oh had been urging Rang to take him to—apparently, they were going to work their way down from there.

Sweating more and more by the second, Rang trudged moodily up to the sky bridge entrance, lagging behind the six kids in his care while Yeon led the group. After a moment, Soo-oh and Min Jae began hanging behind everyone else, slowing down their pace to match Rang's.

Well, they were loyal miniature humans; he'd give them credit for that.

"Ahjussi, are we going to fly the paper planes now?" Min Jae whispered loudly on his right side.

Paper planes?

Oh. The planes they'd folded earlier. Rang had gotten so worn out, he'd already forgotten.

But those would be a nice distraction, and they were going someplace high up. There might as well be some point to Rang's misery.

He smiled, despite the heat.

"I'm glad to see Soo-oh's friend isn't too dumb," he noted. "Where else would we fly paper planes if not up here?" he replied as if that had been his plan all along—truthfully, he'd only hoped to sail them into his brother's head at some point, but this was better. As they came to the beginning of the sky bridge—and the highest point—Yeon stood up ahead, intently explaining something about leaves to the other four students, and when he turned his back for a moment, Rang whispered, "We're going to do a secret attack on my signal. Min-jae, open your backpack, but don't show the planes. We don't want my brother ruining the fun."

Min-jae began unzipping his backpack just as Yeon glanced over at the three of them.

"Come closer, come closer," Rang's brother beckoned. "I promise the night-blooming jasmine doesn't bite. Though it is generally believed to be poisonous, so don't eat from it." Yeon pointed at the plant and gave the rest of the students a firm look. "Do you two have your worksheets?" He gestured to Soo-oh and Min Jae. "Everyone's getting the answer to the first question."

"He's pulling them out of his backpack right now," Rang answered smoothly. "Why don't you tell everyone that story about the noble who poisoned his brother so he could get all of the inheritance?"

"What does that have to do with anything? We don't even grow monkshood in this part of the gardens."

"But everyone will like it. I used to ask for that story every night. Doesn't everyone want to hear the story?" Rang asked the group. "Come on, hyung. Story, story," he began chanting, and soon the kids joined in.

"Story, story, story, story," they chanted.

"All right, all right." Yeon threw up his hands. "I'll tell you, but then you have to fill those out quickly." He pointed at their worksheets.

"Yes, ahjussi," the kids answered collectively, and Rang answered with them, grinning as he did so.

"A long, long time ago, back when tigers used to smoke," his brother began, gesturing widely, "there lived two brothers whose father was a high official in the king's court. One of those brothers was a great warrior, very distinguished and favored by the king himself, while the other brother was weak of body and mind…" Rang nearly got roped into the story as he remembered sitting across from his brother in front of a fire while his brother gestured like he was doing now; back then, Yeon's hands and arms would make shadows on the wall of rock behind him, and Rang would lean forward, enraptured, as his brother detailed the weeks and months of deception that led to the stronger brother's ultimate demise. Yeon's gestures—even the rhythm of his sentences and the pitch of his voice—were exactly the same as they'd been so long ago.

How annoying.

Snapping himself out of his trance, Rang motioned for Soo-oh and Min Jae to follow him, and they slowly—and somewhat cleanly—slipped away and out of sight behind some palm leaves and around a corner.

Then they were free.

Rang knew he was supposed to watch the other four students too, but...they were perfectly safe with his brother. Safer, even, than they would be with Rang.

"But I wanted to hear the rest of the story," Soo-oh complained a little too loudly.

"I'll tell it to you," Rang placated, hushing him. "Now...let's fly some planes."

His brother's story was good, but it wasn't that good. Not good enough for him to want to stand there in this heat and listen to it, not when he could be assaulting the humans walking on the level beneath them with pinpoint accuracy.

At this stage, they were standing above an arrangement of potted hydrangeas that seemed to be a popular photo spot, and it was here that the three of them launched their first volley of planes.


"All right, all right, next question. Let's see if we remember what we learned today. 'What four basic things do plants need to grow and survive?'" Ga Eul read off of her teacher's guide. "Name one thing. Yes, Park Min-young?" She pointed to the pig-tailed girl standing directly in front of her; Min-young was one of her best students.

"Water," the girl answered.

"Water, good. Let's write that down. What else?"

"Light," Lee Min-hyun replied, his rectangular-framed glasses askew. Ga Eul thought the frames were too large for his face—they were almost always falling off of him—but she didn't know if his parents hadn't noticed or if they couldn't afford new ones.

"That's correct," she said, smiling. "What else?"

Yu Ri's hand shot up in the back, and she waved it so feverishly that Ga Eul couldn't help but call on her.

"Our chaperone wants to give it a try!" she announced with enthusiasm. "Yes, Miss Ki Yu Ri?"

"Food," she stated confidently, smiling at the group.

"That's correct," Ga Eul said before any of her know-it-all students could protest. "Very good. And when food is in the soil, what do we call it? What's the scientific term?"

Min-young raised her hand again.

"Yes, Min-young?"

"Nutrients," the girl replied.

"That's correct. Okay, so now we've got water, light, and nutrients." Ga Eul counted to three on her fingers. "What's the fourth and final thing plants need to grow?" She gestured to her lungs. "We breathe in oxygen and breathe out…"


Bullseye.

Rang snickered as his airplane hit its target—a rotund, gray gentleman in a shabby suit—squarely on the back. Unfortunately, the man didn't react, perhaps due to the lightness of the paper or the thickness of his suit. The plane fell to the ground and lay there, tragically unnoticed.

Rang frowned. He quickly picked out his next victims—a couple with a baby in a stroller. Launching two airplanes this time, he hit both of them simultaneously on their ears, earning himself a 'whoa, cool' from Min Jae and a laugh from Soo-oh.

Having thrown their planes, the three of them quickly crouched behind an array of foliage. Rang let some time pass, then led the group forward and down the stairs to the next landing, figuring they might want to keep moving to avoid being discovered by Yeon.

Min Jae and Soo-oh were both so-so at throwing the planes, but Min Jae had hit one person—not the person he was aiming for, but still. In her high heels and business suit, the woman had looked like someone important, and she'd been trying to take a photo with the hydrangeas when the plane had hit, and Rang was pretty sure her photographer now had some funny pictures of her screwing her face up as she brushed off her shoulder like someone had thrown kimchi at her instead of paper.

Rang grinned, remembering the woman's expression. He halted in his tracks, though, when they arrived at the next landing and he saw who had stationed her group of students right beneath it.

Unfortunately, Soo-oh leapt down from the bottom stair and ran towards the railing, flinging his airplane out over it without stopping to notice his teacher below.

And somehow Soo-oh, though he'd missed every single one of his targets so far, managed to hit Ga Eul squarely on the back of her neck. She swiveled around, clutching her neck, and Rang snatched Soo-oh away from the railing just as she looked up at the bridge. There wasn't any foliage to hide behind on this level, and he twisted the boys around quickly so that their backs were turned.

His puppy's obliviousness was insufferable sometimes.


On the bottom floor of the greenhouse, Ga Eul glanced around, hoping to see any sign of Rang and his group of students. Seeing none, she frowned. Perhaps he was still on the sky bridge.

She had meant to talk to Rang more throughout the day, but there'd been too much going on, and now she felt kind of bad for inviting him on the trip. He'd looked so miserable once they'd entered the greenhouse, and now that she thought about it, he'd once said that he found museums horribly boring.

But Rang said everything was boring! Everything besides eating and…

Ga Eul blushed.

Anyway, all he had to do was keep track of the kids and keep them on task. He liked ordering people around, so...he'd be all right.

Right?

At least he was with his brother. Lee Yeon was very sensible and responsible, so what could possibly—

Ga Eul's shoulders jerked as she felt something hit the back of her neck.

She looked behind her, then up at the overhead bridge, and saw Soo-oh's petrified expression, then Rang's hand on his shoulder, yanking the boy backwards. Min Jae appeared to be with them, though Ga Eul could only see his back as they had all turned away and had gone conspicuously still.

Picking it off the ground, Ga Eul unfolded the paper plane that had dived into her neck moments before.

How interesting, Ga Eul observed once she'd opened it. A worksheet on how roots retain water.

Peering up at the sky bridge, she studied the group's cautiously turned backs a moment longer; Soo-oh kept glancing behind him, then quickly turning his head when he saw her watching.

Ga Eul snorted a laugh.

At least Rang was amusing himself. She felt relieved at that. And Soo-oh and Min Jae could do make-up work later, she supposed.

Ah, but this paper all over the place wouldn't do. Now Ga Eul spied a few other paper planes lying on the ground nearby. As much as she hated to break up Rang's fun, she had to be a grown-up in this situation.

Clapping her hands, she got the attention of Yu Ri and their collective group of students.

"Come on, class. Let's go over to the sky bridge," she instructed, motioning for everyone to follow her. "There's more to see up there."


"Come on, class. Let's go over to the sky bridge. There's more to see up there," Ga Eul's voice carried up to Rang, and when he thought it was safe to do so, he glanced down to see her leading her group over to the other entrance to the bridge—the one on the ground floor.

Crap. She'd seen them. She was heading straight for them!

"Come on," Rang hissed, hustling the boys back up the stairs to the landing they'd come from.

Unfortunately, as they ascended, he caught wind of Yeon's voice; he was heading for them too, from the opposite direction!

Rang tugged the boys back to stop them.

They were trapped. Cornered. Hemmed in on both sides.

They could jump.

Well, Rang could jump. The two boys would have to fend for themselves.

Rang stood there a moment, debating his options.

If he jumped, Ga Eul would be mad at him.

If he stayed, Ga Eul would be mad at him.

Ah, but if he jumped, he could at least get an iced coffee before he faced her wrath.

"Dongsaeng ahjussi," Ga Eul's voice reached him before he could take any decisive action. When the group of three turned around, she was standing on the landing beneath them, Yu Ri and the kids behind her. "I take it the rest of your group is with Mister Lee Yeon," she called up.

"Yes, seonsaengnim," Min Jae offered.

"Mmm, I see…Yu Ri, why don't you continue taking everyone up to the top? I'll be along shortly."

Yu Ri readily agreed, and Rang glared at her for her betrayal. She merely smiled as she led the kids past Rang and the two boys and went on up the stairs.

Once everyone had gone ahead of her, Ga Eul ascended to Rang's landing, and there she stood with her hands placed on her hips, drawn up straight and tall on her black pumps.

"Kim Soo-oh. Ha Min Jae," she began crossly. "I'm very disappointed in both of you. You should know better than to litter. Now I want to see you clean up all that paper you threw on the bottom floor and put it all in the trash."

"But Mister Lee Rang said—" the boys began to protest.

"I don't want to hear it. There's no excuse. Now go pick everything up."

"Yes, seonsaengnim," Soo-oh and Min Jae chorused with downcast heads.

Haha. It sucked to be them: a student and a miniature human. Whereas Rang, a fox and the teacher's boyfriend, was exempt from—

"You too, dongsaeng ahjussi," Ga Eul continued as the boys began walking past her down the stairs.

Rang blinked, taken aback.

"Me?" He pointed at himself, feigning innocence.

Smiling, Ga Eul approached him until she was standing at a close but publicly acceptable distance from him. When she spoke, her voice was light and low enough that only he could hear.

"I understand this is your first day, so I won't punish you further, but in my class we have a strict 'no littering' policy. And if you want to stay in my class, you have to follow my rules." Ga Eul patted his shoulder, smiling all the more sweetly. A passerby might have believed she was saying something affectionate.

Affectionate, Rang's ass. Telling him to pick paper off the ground—hah! Who did she think she was talking to?!

She swept past him, brushing her shoulder against his, and trailed after her group of students.

Rang made a face after her.

'If you want to stay in my class,' he mimicked, then grumbled, "Who says I want to be in your class?"

As he surveyed her retreating back—why did she have to wear a dress that made her figure look so good?—he felt a tug on his shirt. Frowning, he looked down and saw that Soo-oh and Min Jae had crept up on him.

"Ahjussi, I think we better pick up the paper now, or we're going to get in more trouble," Soo-oh urged him. "Chu Seonsaengnim is scary when she gets mad."

"She doesn't get mad much, but when she does, it's really scary," Min Jae confirmed, nodding.

"She doesn't scare me," Rang argued petulantly. "Speak for yourself."

"Okay. But just remember, I told you so," Soo-oh said. He and Min Jae began their descent to the lower level again, leaving Rang alone on the landing.

He remained there, sulking, for a few moments, but soon realized he might as well go down the stairs. It was cooler on the ground floor.

Plus, he guessed he was still supposed to be watching the miniature humans, even though they'd ratted him out.


The school group ate lunch in the park on the garden grounds, and at that time Rang finally got his iced coffee. Not that he needed it anymore. The weather outside the greenhouse was much, much cooler.

Ga Eul insisted that he sit beside her in a corner off to the side—Yu Ri was trying her luck at making more human friends by eating with the other two chaperones—and though ordinarily he would have jumped at the chance to sit next to Ga Eul, he had a feeling in this case she was trying to keep an eye on him. It was annoying.

"You can eat your food," he said when she wouldn't stop staring at him. "I'm not going to start a food fight."

Ga Eul raised a suspicious eyebrow as she lifted a piece of beef kimbap from her lunchbox. Rang had already finished the kimbap she'd packed for him that morning.

"Are you sure? My troublemaking little brother." She popped the kimbap into her mouth.

"This is why they say teachers ruin all the fun."

Ga Eul finished chewing and scoffed.

"Who says that? When were you in school?"

"It's just something that people say." Rang smiled. "Now I've confirmed it."

Ga Eul squinted, glaring. She continued eating her kimbap.

Restlessly toying with the grass, Rang let her eat a few more bites, then asked, "Seonsaengnim, since I finished my food, can I go now?"

"Go? Go where?" Ga Eul asked, studying him.

"I promised Soo-oh I'd eat lunch with him, but you're making me sit all the way over here." He pouted.

Ga Eul looked amused.

"You want to go sit with your chingudeul?" she teased.

"What 'friends?' I'm six hundred years old," Rang protested.

"Yes, yes, you're six hundred years old. That's all you ever say." Ga Eul tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Go, go." She made a shooing motion with her hand. "I know this well. No one wants to sit with the boring and strict teacher."

"But you still want to meet with me after school, right?" Rang waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"I'll think about it," Ga Eul said, picking up her last piece of kimbap between her chopsticks.

"Thank you, seonsaengnim," Rang enthused. He got up quickly and went to sit down next to Soo-oh and Min Jae, who heartily welcomed him.

"Ahjussi, ahjussi, will you tell us the story now?" Min Jae asked.

"What story?"

"About the two brothers."

"Oh...I don't know that I remember all of it right now."

"Please," the two boys pleaded.

Rang sighed.

He was tired, and he hadn't meant to engage with them so much as he'd wanted to get out from under Ga Eul's penetrating stare.

But...ugh...as long as he was sitting with them, they probably wouldn't leave him alone. And their eyes...why did both of them have puppy eyes? Min Jae hadn't been a puppy in his past life, had he?

"All right, all right. I'll tell you. I'm better than my brother at telling the story anyway," he said, though truthfully, he'd never told anyone the story before. He'd just recited it to himself over and over when he couldn't sleep.

"A long, long time ago," he began, "back when tigers used to smoke…"

As he spoke, the words to the tale rolled off his tongue steadily, as if he'd told it a million times. Soo-oh and Min Jae leaned forward attentively, and soon a few other students who hadn't been there when Yeon told the story crept closer to Rang as well. Before long, he had a semi-circle of students gathered around him, and though he couldn't see her, he could sense Ga Eul watching him. She probably thought he was starting a rebellion.

Rang didn't think a rebellion sounded like a bad idea.

By the time he finished detailing the poisoned brother's death, adding some gruesome embellishments to Yeon's original description, she had come to stand near the circle of students. When he announced the story had come to an end, the students clapped, and she clapped with them.

"That was an interesting story. What was the lesson of it?" she asked.

"Lesson?" Rang echoed.

"All old tales teach a lesson."

"The lesson is to not let yourself get poisoned," Rang answered with a wry smile.

"Ah, I see." Ga Eul smiled.

"Unless you're like me. I'm immune to monkshood. I can eat it without feeling a thing. If I was in the story, it wouldn't have worked," Rang bragged.

"Really?" Ga Eul raised her eyebrows.

"If there's some monkshood around here, I can eat it right now. Who wants to see it?" he asked the students; he was beginning to enjoy the attention.

Several hands shot up from the crowd.

Unfortunately, Ga Eul shot him down.

"I-I-I'm afraid we don't have time for that, and none of you should ever eat anything poisonous. Mister Lee Rang is a professional. Professional what, I'm not sure."

There were a few peeps of protest, but overall the group acquiesced to Ga Eul's announcement, much to Rang's dismay.

Maybe he should start a rebellion.


Though the morning of the field trip had seemed to last an entire week, the rest of the day passed quickly, and before he knew it, Rang found himself in his car, waiting for Ga Eul to join him.

It was strange. He wasn't sad that the day was over, per se, but he had enjoyed it more towards the end. Enough to feel like the day hadn't been quite long enough.

By chance, he'd discovered a planting of monkshood as they were leaving, marked with a sign declaring 'toxic: do not touch.'" So, of course, Rang had to touch it. He had to pluck off one of the petals just because he could, and even though he'd missed his chance to show off for the miniature humans, he could still show off for his little human, and he would. Just as soon as she got in the—

"Sorry it took me so long," Ga Eul said, opening her car door. She tossed her stuff in the back of Rang's car and took a huge, heaving breath of relief when she'd sat down and closed the door. "I forgot how exhausting field trips are," she noted. Looking over at him, she smiled. "Thanks for coming with me. Even though you nearly got us kicked out of the greenhouse, it was fun having you there."

"Kicked out?" Rang scoffed, still slightly sore from her making him pick up the paper earlier. "Were we throwing knives? It was just paper." He pulled out of their parking space and made his way onto the busy street.

"I know, and I'm glad you were having fun, but there's a rule against littering in there. I'm supposed to keep everybody in line since it's my group, so if you guys got caught by someone who worked at the gardens, I would get in trouble," Ga Eul explained.

"Trouble? With who?"

"Well, with your brother's bosses probably."

Oh. Rang hadn't thought about there being a higher power behind Ga Eul's decisions. He'd thought she was just doing what teachers do.

"Oh. Sorry," Rang mumbled. "But anyway, if you have trouble, I can take care of it for you."

"You mean you can make trouble for me, and then you can take care of it for me?"

"Exactly."

Ga Eul laughed. She seemed more relaxed than when she'd first gotten into the car, so Rang dug in his pants pocket for the purple petal he'd stuffed there.

"Do you want to see something cool?" he coaxed.

"Hmm? Sure. What is it?"

"I am now going to eat this highly toxic plant." He held the petal up between his thumb and forefinger.

Ga Eul blinked.

"Um...is that…"

Rang nodded.

"It's exactly what the nobleman ate in the story. In its purest form." He grinned. "It has no effect on me. Watch." He started to put the petal on his tongue, but Ga Eul shook her head furiously.

"No, no, no, I don't want you to get sick!"

"I'm not going to get sick."

"W-well, when was the last time you ate it?"

"I'm immune."

"But I don't want you to eat it. Please," Ga Eul pleaded, tugging his arm, and Rang would have eaten it despite her protests, but she looked so horrified that he knew she would only spend the rest of the night worrying over him. She might even make him go to the hospital, where the human doctors would poke at him with their human hands.

Ugh.

Rang sighed.

"Fine, little human," he said, rolling down his car window and tossing the petal out to be carried away by the wind.

Ga Eul had slouched down in her seat; she was glaring at him with her arms crossed, and Rang chuckled.

"You're cute," he said, mussing up her hair, careful to use the hand that had not touched the petal.

Ga Eul batted his hand away.

"Don't die. I like you too much."

Rang messed with Ga Eul's hair again, earning himself a firm 'cut it out!'

"You're cute when you're bossing tiny humans around," he mentioned, placing his hand back on the steering wheel.

Smoothing out her hair, Ga Eul gave him a wary side glance.

"Really?"

Rang nodded, smiling, and after a beat, she smiled back. She relaxed into the seat and looked out the window.

After a moment, she added, "You're cute when you're disobeying my class rules."

She said this without looking at him, but he could see her smile reflected in his side mirror.

"Don't worry. If I haven't died yet, I'll probably live forever," Rang quipped, turning his attention back to the road. He ignored the niggling reminder in the back of his mind that his time would be permanently up whenever he did die. He hadn't really cared before, content to spend the rest of his days with Yu Ri and Shin-joo and Soo-oh and his brother and just go when he was ready to go, but Ga Eul had thrown a wrench in those plans. He didn't want to die any time soon, at any rate.


Rang was dying.

The tingling had begun in Rang's hand and had quickly spread up his arm to his shoulder. Then his whole arm had gone numb. His mouth had burned, tingled, then grown numb also. But his stomach...his stomach had simply burned. It had lurched and roiled until he'd spilled his guts onto the dirt, and he'd heaved until he'd emptied his stomach and had kept heaving afterwards, as though his stomach had wanted to expel his organs also. Maybe it had wanted to expel the human hearts he'd eaten. Maybe this poisoning was his punishment.

At present, he was lying on the forest floor, practically paralyzed, unable to feel most of his limbs and too weak to get up even if he had been able to feel properly. Sweat dripped down his forehead and into his eyes, and he couldn't wipe it away because his hand had gone limp by his side, useless. His heart was beating way too fast, and he couldn't get enough air, and he felt like he was dying—certainly, this must be what death felt like—and he wished if he was dying that he could just die and get it over with.

He had to be dying. He was being punished, and he could see his brother, hovering amid the pine trees a short distance from him, like a ghostly guide to the afterlife. Like the wood statuettes of fierce guardians that accompanied funeral biers. Shrouded in mist, Lee Yeon wore his flowing white hanbok, and his sword was drawn, and he stared at Rang with that disapproving look he used when he chastised Rang for misbehaving.

Rang wanted to find comfort in seeing his brother again, but he only felt fear.

"Hyung?" he rasped, but his brother didn't move. He didn't try to help Rang. Lee Yeon merely stared at the dying boy with that utterly disappointed look on his face, and Rang couldn't concentrate on the image further because his vision was growing blurry. It was too difficult for him to breathe. He shut his eyes and tried to suck in more air, wheezing with the effort, but it was impossible. He began to panic.

He couldn't breathe.

He couldn't breathe.

He couldn't breathe.

He opened his eyes, and his brother had vanished into the mist.

He heard a girl humming in the background.

Then, darkness.


When Rang came to, Su Gyeong was hovering over him, chewing on what looked like a deer's liver.

"See?" she said, her bloody smile laced with smugness. "Told you, you wouldn't die."


A/N: The plant that Rang eats in the flashback is Korean monkshood (aconitum coreanum); it is highly poisonous to humans and animals, though it has been used in traditional folk medicine. Another name for it in Europe is wolf's bane.

The botanic gardens in this chapter are based off the Seoul Botanic Park in Seoul, South Korea.

Terms:

hyung: older brother (used by a male to refer to a male sibling)

seonsaengnim: teacher

ahjumma: married or middle-aged woman

ahjussi: mister

dongsaeng: little brother (so "dongsaeng ahjussi" is literally "Mister Little Brother")

chingudeul: friends (The Korean word 'chingu' translates to 'friend' in English, but it does not mean the exact same thing that 'friend' means in English; this is due to the social structure that Koreans have; you can only be someone's 'chingu' if you are close friends with them/close to their age. So Ga Eul is, of course, teasing him about being Soo-oh and Min Jae's 'chingu.')