A/N: Italics are flashbacks. Next chapter will be in Rang's POV.

Rang was staring intently at Ga Eul's neck, at the tiny slice in her skin where she'd let him nick her with his claw. He'd pulled her hair back and was rubbing ointment on the cut while she sat sideways on his lap, her legs dangling off the bed. As soon as they'd gotten back to her apartment, Rang had retrieved the first aid kit from her bathroom and had started fussing over her neck the way he'd done over her injured hands, and though those were hardly comparable injuries, Ga Eul couldn't deny she basked in the attention. She liked how gently Rang held her neck with one hand while the fingers of his other hand brushed over her skin in warm, smooth strokes, and though it was a simple thing, she liked watching him remove the paper backing on a bandaid and press the bandaid over her cut. He was serious, and Rang was hardly ever serious, unless he thought she was hurt or in danger. As much as she enjoyed laughing at his playful antics, Ga Eul liked that she could bring out that side of him.

"You should let some of those bruises heal up before you get more," he commented in a physician-like manner. "Unless you want all the blood vessels in your neck to burst."

Ga Eul raised her eyebrows.

"Really? They would do that?"

Rang laughed, looking thoroughly amused by her, as he often did when teasing her about something she had little knowledge of.

"How would I know?" he asked. "You're the first human I've been with. But just to be safe, maybe we should give your fragile human skin a rest." He traced his fingers worriedly, soothingly, over the bruises on her neck, as if he were trying make them feel better—though they didn't hurt—or heal them faster.

"I thought these would have gone away by now," he mumbled before dropping his hand.

"I read somewhere that they can last up to two weeks. Maybe your mouth is stronger than human mouths?" Ga Eul suggested. "It's okay, though. I like them."

Rang squinted at her neck for a moment longer, then brought his eyes to her face. Smiling, he stroked her hair. Then he reached behind his neck and unhooked the black choker he sometimes wore. Hooking the choker around Ga Eul's neck, he carefully arranged her hair around it, pulling it through the loop of the necklace.

"It looks good on you," he said when he had finished. His hand rested at the base of her throat where his claws had been earlier that evening, his thumb stroking the skin underneath his choker. "My adorable human," he added, sifting his fingers through her hair, and his one fox eye lit up, gleaming with an intensity she couldn't fathom was directed at her. Sometimes, when he looked at her like that—like he might devour her—Ga Eul thought that even if he was seducing her in order to lead her to an untimely death, she would gladly let him.

"My pet fox," she said, messing his hair up to break the tension. "Thank you for taking care of me." She gave him a warm smile.

Rang pressed a kiss to her neck, just above the bandaid, and winked at her.


"So the bruises...he gave them to you?" Shin-joo asked tentatively. He sat beside Yu Ri and across from Ga Eul, who felt slightly better now that she had a full stomach. Shin-joo had prepared her a simple supper of grilled meat, rice, and kimchi once she'd mentioned that she hadn't eaten. At Rang's apartment, she'd prepared bowls of food for both her and Rang from the dishes he'd set out, but once it had become clear that Rang wouldn't be coming to the table, she hadn't eaten a bite, so she was grateful for the meal as well as the company.

"Of course, he did," Yu Ri answered for Ga Eul. "Don't you know love bites when you see them?"

Shin-joo coughed nervously and cleared his throat.

"Yes, well…" he trailed off.

Ga Eul turned scarlet and arranged her hair over her shoulders so that the copper strands more thoroughly covered her neck. She'd taken her hair down after Shin-joo had mentioned the marks the first time, but there was only so much she could do. Ga Eul wondered what they must think of her, that she enjoyed having a nine-tailed fox sink his teeth into her neck, that she'd wanted him to mark her as his. At least she'd gotten rid of the bandaid, and the cut Rang had made was barely noticeable now. She didn't want to have to explain that.

"I feel like this is all my fault," Yu Ri lamented, changing the subject. "I wanted him to go out with you. I didn't think he would do something like that."

As Ga Eul had eaten, she'd told Shin-joo and Yu Ri about the questionnaire Rang had answered for her and why she'd decided to try dating him. She'd covered generally what they'd been doing for the past month, and then all the excruciating details from earlier in the evening had spilled out. She hadn't been sure that Shin-joo and Yu Ri would take her side—they were Rang's friends, first and foremost—but they had been comforting and sympathetic—even enraged on her behalf, in the case of Shin-joo.

"You can't blame yourself for Lee Rang acting like a jerk," Shin-joo admonished Yu Ri.

"No one is at fault except Lee Rang," Ga Eul said, soothing Yu Ri. "And it hasn't all been bad. I was perfectly happy with him until a few hours ago. In fact, I think that's what upsets me the most. I don't even know who I was with in that apartment tonight. He's never acted like that before. I mean, I know he can be a handful sometimes. He's kind of hyperactive and childish, and he likes to push boundaries, but he never did anything that made me feel unsafe before. I've never been scared of him before. Ever."

Earlier that evening, Rang had been so unpredictable. It wasn't that Ga Eul had expected to stay perfectly happy with Rang forever. This was a first relationship for both of them. She'd assumed they would each screw up in one way or another, but she hadn't planned for it to be so dramatic or so...revealing of a totally different side of the person.

"You were scared because he wouldn't let you leave the apartment?" Yu Ri clarified.

"That and...I mean, maybe this would be hard for him to understand, being a fox and all, but I don't have any powers to defend myself with, and I can't see through his deceptions. I mean, he could keep deceiving me and deceiving me, and I would have no idea." Ga Eul hated mind games like that; they made her think of Yi Jeong's pretenses, ramped up to an unrealistic level. She hated people playing with her feelings, no matter their intentions.

Yu Ri's face hardened. Earlier she'd threatened to go over to Rang's apartment and kick his ass—and Ga Eul had learned that Rang had taught Yu Ri martial arts—but Ga Eul had dissuaded her. She'd had enough drama for one evening without having two foxes take their claws out over the situation.

Ga Eul sipped on the hot tea Shin-joo had prepared, grateful for the warmth soothing her hands and her throat. A small comfort. She cast her eyes down and tapped her fingers on the mug.

On the one hand, perhaps it was sweet, Rang giving her all those gifts when he couldn't have expected anything substantial in return. On the other hand, she felt lied to and that her privacy had been invaded. A weird mixture of emotions. She'd compared Rang to a hot chocolate before—soothing and warm, like the tea she currently drank, but also, when raised to the right temperature, scalding and dangerous. Now she wondered if she should add a dash of poison to that hot chocolate. A drop of deception. But would it be fatal to their relationship? Frustratingly, she couldn't say. As upset as she was, the longer she sat in Rang's former chair, the more she missed him. And the more she missed him, the more she convinced herself that the guy she'd dated for a month was still part of him, and even if he had a clumsy, creepy way of showing it, he did care about her. Still, this was a lot to take in during the course of one evening, even though she'd known he was far from perfect when she'd started dating him. She had to decide if she was interested in forgiving this particular cocktail of mistakes and if there was anything he could do to make her trust him again. A tall order.

Ga Eul remembered when she'd told herself she'd give him a month to impress her, and if she wasn't happy at the end of the month, she'd break things off with him. Only now everything was infinitely more complicated because she'd fallen in love with him, like it was a precipice she'd been waiting to drop down from after so many months of harboring a crush on him. Given the right opportunity and encouragement, she'd leapt right over. She hadn't even known she was in love with him until he said those awful words that made her cry, the words that made her realize he didn't see her in the totally worshipful, adoring way she'd thought he did. And maybe he hadn't meant exactly what he'd said in the cruel way he'd said it, but it unfortunately made sense that Rang would see her as being of lesser importance than him. He'd only spent hundreds of years hating humans like her. That mentality couldn't have changed overnight. And what should she believe when his eyes said one thing, but his lips said something else?

She wanted to trust that Rang respected her and that he had never had any ill intentions towards her, but wanting to trust someone and being able to were two separate things. It was a type of grief, really, realizing that she would never be able to look at Rang in the same light, regardless of what he did in the future. The Lee Rang she'd built up in her mind was dead.

"Can I ask you a question?" Yu Ri prodded, and Ga Eul lifted her gaze, suddenly aware that she hadn't spoken for several minutes.

"You don't have to answer it if you don't want to," Yu Ri amended. "I'm just curious."

"Sure, what is it?" Ga Eul answered, sipping her tea.

"What did you like about Lee Rang when you were dating him?"

"Why would she want to think about that?" Shin-joo interrupted.

"It's okay." Ga Eul gave Shin-joo a half-smile. "I can answer it." Ga Eul set her tea down. The cup was nearly empty, and Ga Eul spoke down to the remains of the dark liquid instead of directly to their faces. She tried to conjure the Rang she'd just buried and laid to rest, and, in the same way the memory of her deceased grandmother tasted bittersweet, Ga Eul felt a little sad and a little happy remembering what had drawn her to him. "I guess the first thing I liked about him was that he always made me laugh. You know how he's a bit immature, regardless of the situation? I mean, in a playful sort of way?" Ga Eul asked, glancing up, and Shin-joo and Yu Ri nodded. "Well...maybe I'm just not grown up enough yet, but...I liked it." She let a tiny smile escape her lips. "I thought he was funny. I also knew he could be clingy before tonight. He showed up way too early for most of our dates, but it didn't bother me at the time. I"—Ga Eul lowered her eyes and blushed over her next words—"really liked that too. He was sweet and caring and attentive—"

"Sweet? Caring?" Shin-joo commented, and Ga Eul glanced up at him. "That doesn't sound like Lee Rang at all," he continued. "Except for the immaturity and the clinginess. Although you like that, for some reason." He scrunched his forehead in confusion.

"Lee Rang can be sweet. You just don't know him that well," Yu Ri replied, nudging Shin-joo's shoulder.

"I know him so well he crushed the bones in my face."

"He was trying to get back at Lee Yeon."

"He crushed the bones in my face."

"Why were you trying to fight him?! You knew he could kill you!"

"You're making such a great argument for his case right now. His girlfriend is sitting right here…"

Ga Eul smiled as Yu Ri and Shin-joo continued their bantering over Rang's relative merits and demerits. They'd been doing that ever since she'd finished her story, with Shin-joo being staunchly disapproving and Yu Ri being protective of Rang, even though she'd agreed he'd gone a touch insane. It was like having the proverbial angel and devil on her shoulders arguing with each other, though in Yu Ri and Shin-joo's case, they were doing it in hushed tones to prevent Soo-oh from waking up. For the most part, Ga Eul was simply listening. Her head was too full of information to properly process all of it, so she listened. She absorbed. She hoped they would say something that would indicate she wasn't crazy for falling for Rang so quickly...or that he wasn't as crazy as he'd seemed earlier that night.

Now that Ga Eul had gotten her story out, she'd deflated, her emotions having been wrung dry. She'd known she'd fallen for him too quickly, but he'd made her feel special, like she was the only person in the world. Like, when he was with her, there was nowhere else he wanted to be. There was nothing else he wanted to do. There was no one else he would rather be with. As someone who had always been found lacking or who had always been second choice to someone else, Ga Eul had found it irresistible to be Rang's first choice, his only choice. She'd even found his possessive streak appealing, as unhealthy as that might be. Now she was suffering from emotional whiplash. She wanted the night to be over. She wanted to curl up on her bed and cry, but she also wanted to hear what Yu Ri and Shin-joo had to say, so she stayed.

Maybe this was foolish, but she kind of wished Rang had followed her to their apartment, that at any moment he would appear at the door and try to apologize again. She still thought everything he'd done was manipulative, yet that didn't stop her from wanting one of his warm hugs. She'd gotten too used to them. And the cat thing—if she looked at it in isolation and not as a prelude to a huge stalking reveal—had been sort of cute. It was exactly the type of last-ditch, awkward apology effort she might have expected from him, and why that made her want to laugh she had no idea. She lacked the capacity to stay mad at him, except for short bursts of time. Her feelings of betrayal rolled over her in waves, ebbing when she remembered a happy moment, then plunging her back into their depths.


"Rang, I can't breathe," Ga Eul protested, enveloped in a bone-crushing hug.

"I'm only hugging you with half of my strength," Rang answered in an all-knowing tone. "Of course, you can breathe."

"No, I'm serious," Ga Eul replied with a burst of nervous laughter. "I can't breathe."

"If you can talk, you can breathe," Rang said, nonetheless loosening his hold on her.

Ga Eul rested her head more comfortably on his chest.

"Fine," she conceded. "Why don't you hug me with all of your strength then?"

"I thought you couldn't breathe already."

"I'll take a big breath beforehand, and then I won't have to breathe."

"I don't know. I think your fragile human bones might break."

"I'll tell you if it gets to be too much."

"How can you tell me if you can't breathe?"

"I'll tug on your coat, like this." Ga Eul demonstrated.

"Fine. Don't complain afterward. You asked for it." And with that, Rang gave her the tightest hug of her life, tighter than she thought was humanly possible. Well, it wasn't humanly possible, in all likelihood. Before she could adjust to the shock of it, Rang released her, and when she looked up at him, he was looking her over, probably wondering if, aside from her general wobbliness, she was okay.

"You can break someone's ribs like that," Ga Eul informed him, rubbing her side. At the look of alarm in Rang's eyes, she immediately added, "But my ribs are fine. Just sore."

"I told you not to complain." Rang slipped his hands around the sides of her stomach, holding her delicately, his thumbs pressing into her abdomen. "Crazy human."

Ga Eul stuck her tongue out at him.

"Silly fox."


"...her memory," Yu Ri said, and Ga Eul caught the end of the phrase. She snapped out of her reverie.

Her memory? What?

"Sorry? What did you say?" she asked, glancing from Yu Ri to Shin-joo.

Shin-joo shot Yu Ri a look, and the latter quickly amended, "Oh, uh, nothing."

Ga Eul could see it wasn't nothing, though, from the uncomfortable expression on Yu Ri's face.

"I'd appreciate it if you don't keep any more secrets from me," Ga Eul said. "If there's anything about Lee Rang that you think I should know, please tell me. Or even if you don't think I should know it, maybe it would help me to make sense of what he did." Ga Eul wrung her hands. "He didn't tell me much about himself."

"It's really nothing," Shin-joo assured her. "It's not important."

"Well, clearly, she thinks it's important." Ga Eul gestured to Yu Ri.

Shin-joo turned to Yu Ri and insisted, "There's no point in scaring her further over—"

"It's not going to scare her if he didn't do it," Yu Ri replied.

"Yet," Shin-joo stated pointedly. "Who knows what goes on in that emotionally stunted brain of his?"

"Well, now I have to know what it is." Ga Eul persisted. "So what is it? Please. You're scaring me anyway by arguing over whether or not to tell me."

Yu Ri glanced at Shin-joo, and a resigned expression passed over his face. He sighed.

"Fine. Go ahead."

Yu Ri leaned forward, her elbows on the table.

"Did Lee Rang tell you he can erase memories?" Yu Ri paused, as if gauging Ga Eul's reaction to this statement, before continuing, "He can also use a form of mind control."

Ga Eul blinked.

Mind control? First stalking and now...mind control? Ga Eul tried not to let her panic show on her face.

Oh, god. Had he been brainwashing her, and that was why every time she looked into his eyes she internally melted and thought she might acquiesce to his every whim?

"Don't freak out," Yu Ri said, as if reading her thoughts. "I have a theory. This is actually a good thing."

"It's a good thing that he can control my mind?" Ga Eul asked with a squeak of nervousness.

"It's good that he can, but he hasn't," Yu Ri explained patiently. "That means he has boundaries with you, things he won't do."

"How do you know that he hasn't?" Ga Eul frowned. "If he wiped my memory, I wouldn't remember him doing it. Do you think he made me do things that I don't remember?"

"He wouldn't," Yu Ri said immediately.

"He could," Shin-joo corrected.

"But he didn't," Yu Ri said, "I know he didn't. If he didn't do anything to you tonight when he certainly would have benefitted from it, then there's no reason why he would have. I've never seen him use that power on someone he cared about, and I've seen him use it on plenty of people. I know that he cares about you, even if he's bad at showing it."

"Oh," Ga Eul said, unsure what to make of that, except that...maybe that was what Rang had meant when he said he hadn't messed with her mind. Yu Ri's words made her feel marginally better, but…

"Can he make me remember something that isn't real?" Ga Eul asked.

"What do you mean?" Yu Ri replied.

"Like, can he make me remember things that didn't actually happen? If he can make me forget things, can he also implant memories?"

"No," Yu Ri and Shin-joo answered at the same time, and Ga Eul felt more relieved.

"Oh, okay. That's good, then." At least, she could be sure the memories she did have were accurate.

"I know this seems like a really low bar to clear, but for Lee Rang to not use his powers to his advantage, that's a huge concession for him," Yu Ri said. "I think he's really trying to have a normal relationship with you."

"He might be trying, but he's still making her cry," Shin-joo countered, "and now she's too scared to enter her own apartment!"

"Don't worry. I promise I'll go back to my apartment tomorrow," Ga Eul said in a reassuring tone.

"Why would you do that?" Shin-joo cried. "We have a spare empty bedroom, courtesy of Lee Rang. Let's see him try to break in here. I've been waiting for a rematch."

"Ah, but there's no way you can take him!" Yu Ri protested. "Just let it go."

"I can take him if you back me up."

"You know I can't do that."

"Has he said anything to you for months?" Shin-joo demanded. "I don't know why you're still trying to help him."

"He saved me. He saved my life," Yu Ri argued.

"So you're going to owe him for the rest of your life?"

"Yes!"

"Ridiculous."

"What did he...What did he save you from?" Ga Eul asked, and suddenly Yu Ri blushed and dipped her head bashfully. Ga Eul hoped she hadn't overstepped.

"Oh, um, before I...became like this"—Yu Ri gestured to her body dramatically—"I was a fox. A, you know, like the animal, and I lived in a zoo where they mistreated me." Yu Ri touched her shoulder self-consciously, and Shin-joo patted her leg. Yu Ri smiled up at him, then looked back at Ga Eul. "Lee Rang killed the guy who was being mean to me and brought me to live with him."

Well, that was news to Ga Eul. She'd never asked how Rang and Yu Ri knew each other. Rang didn't like to talk about himself much, and given what she'd already known about his history, Ga Eul simply hadn't pressed him on it so far.

"Why did he save you?" Ga Eul asked. "Forgive me, he just doesn't strike me as the altruistic savior type, even though he did save me once."

"He's not, but he does have a soft spot for animals who are being mistreated, especially by humans. Very few things make him more angry than that," Yu Ri informed her.

Well, that made sense, Ga Eul supposed; given that Rang was technically an animal himself, he would hate to see other animals being abused. Ga Eul could understand that sentiment. As a teacher, few things made her as angry as when she saw a child being mistreated. It was one of the reasons she'd kept such a careful eye on Soo-oh and had happily agreed to tutor him to make certain he'd found a good home.

Another puzzle piece in Rang's story had been revealed, though, and she wanted to make sure she knew what it meant. Rang being protective over abused animals was heartwarming, but what did it mean that he'd been protective over Yu Ri when he'd also been protective over her?

"So...you two lived together...before you got married?" Ga Eul asked Yu Ri carefully. Despite how upset with Rang she was, Ga Eul couldn't help the twinge of jealousy that shot through her upon saying those words out loud. Rang had always struck her as the solitary type, but was it normal for him to have female roommates? He had done an impressive job designing her room. "Like, as a couple?" Ga Eul asked, more plainly. Though Rang had told Ga Eul that she was his first girlfriend, who knew what else he'd been hiding besides the shapeshifting?

"Oh no, it's nothing like that." Yu Ri waved her hands frantically. "Lee Rang...he saved my life. That's why I lived with him. We weren't...I mean, we didn't...have that type of relationship. We were partners...in crime! Not in...not romantically," she finished awkwardly.

"You could have just said 'no,'" Shin-joo pointed out.

"Ah, yes, but…" Yu Ri grabbed her open can of beer and shook it gently before throwing back the last of it.

"Is there something you'd like to tell me?" Shin-joo raised his eyebrows.

Yu Ri avoided looking at either of them, suddenly displaying a good deal of nervous energy.

After a few moments of tapping her fingers listlessly, she burst out, "Okay, fine. I had a tiny crush on him to begin with. Tiny." Yu Ri held her thumb and forefinger close together. "But he was never interested in me like that, so I dropped it."

Shin-joo stared doubtfully at her.

"Don't look at me like that." Yu Ri squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. "He was the only other fox I'd seen in...Look, I didn't fall in love with him, okay? I never cried over him like she's doing." Yu Ri pointed at Ga Eul. "Sorry," she added, giving Ga Eul an apologetic nod. "Just forget I said that. It was a very short-lived crush, I promise. I don't want to be with him like that. I just want him to be happy, and I think you're his best chance at being happy. Besides"—she smiled at Shin-joo and ruffled his hair—"I already married my soulmate." She kissed Shin-joo's cheek.

"I know you're just trying to butter me up," Shin-joo said, giving her a knowing side glance, "but since company's here, I'll forgive you."

Yu Ri gave him another kiss for good measure, then turned back to Ga Eul.

"Is there anything else you'd like to know about Lee Rang? I lived with him for a good while, so I can probably answer anything you'd like to know."

Anything Ga Eul would like to know? That was too long of a list. There was one thing that she needed to know, though, and even though she didn't think Yu Ri could answer it for her, she decided to ask it anyway.

"Do you think he acted the way he did tonight because I'm human, and he still thinks I'm...beneath him?" Ga Eul asked. "I mean, he did hate humans in the past, and….Living together, I can understand him wanting that. He does seem to expect things to go faster than I'm always comfortable with, but he's never pressured me into doing anything like he did tonight. He was so terribly insistent that I leave my job. I mean, those are two very big requests, and he just came out with them like he expected me to rejoice in these decisions he'd made for me, even though he'd literally never said anything about either one of them before. It was like my opinion didn't matter. Is that because I'm human, or is that just how he is? Is he that selfish with everyone?" Him wanting her to live with him was one thing. If it had been only that, maybe she could have written it off as him being overprotective of her because of her assault or even being extraordinarily clingy. But leaving her job? Could he have been any more condescending about the work she enjoyed? The work that had sustained her when she had nothing else going right for her? Hearing him mock her vocation had stung like nothing else had.

"I'll tell you what made him do it. Yes, he's selfish. He's also insane," Shin-joo offered by way of explanation. "Miss Ga Eul, please, you'll be better off without him. Trust me."

"He can be selfish, but ultimately he wouldn't make you do something you don't want to do," Yu Ri argued. "I don't think he acted that way because you're human. I think he acted that way because you're his soulmate. I mean, you said that he wanted you to move in so that he could spend more time with you, right?"

Ga Eul nodded.

"That's what he said."

"And he also followed you around so he could spend time with you?"

Ga Eul nodded again.

"I promise, if Lee Rang thought you were lower than him, he wouldn't bother spending a second longer with you than he had to, and I know he wouldn't try so desperately to impress you, like he's been doing." She poked Shin-joo's shoulder. "I think we can both agree on that."

"So you don't think he meant what he said, about my life being meaningless?"

"He says a lot of things when he's upset, but most of it's hot air," Yu Ri answered in a conspiratorial manner. "He threatened to kill his brother for years and then ended up saving his life, so I wouldn't read too much into what he said to you. It was mean, but I don't think it was true. He denied liking you when he got mad at us, and that was obviously a lie."

Tears welled up in Ga Eul's eyes upon hearing that, and she blinked them away. Perhaps she shouldn't have thought so much about what Rang had said—it had been obvious that he'd been throwing a tantrum and saying things out of spite—but having gotten used to people finding things wrong with her—reasons not to be with her—she'd taken Rang's comments to heart. But of course he hadn't meant it. He'd said such lovely things about her in his letter to her and on every date afterwards.

"I also have a theory," Yu Ri began, "about why he wanted you to quit your job and move in with him, if you'd like to hear it."

"You do?" Shin-joo replied.

"It has to do with his mother," Yu Ri said.

Ga Eul frowned.

"He never told me about his parents. I only know that his father was a fox, and his mother was a human, and that's why he's half-human."

"How is this relevant?" Shin-joo asked.

"How is it not relevant?" Yu Ri retorted.

"You can't excuse everything he does based on something that happened six hundred years ago. If you do that, you'll end up like Lee Yeon, still putting up with his childishness hundreds of years later." Shin-joo crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, looking like he'd heard whatever the excuse was a few hundred times already.

"What happened six hundred years ago?" Ga Eul asked. "Why don't you tell me, and I can decide for myself if it's relevant?" She straightened up and looked pointedly at Shin-joo and Yu Ri. Now that she was no longer focused on Rang's hurtful words, maybe she could get to the root of the problem. She waited, eyeing them eagerly, and eventually Yu Ri began her tale, casting a sidelong glance at Shin-joo.

"He'll probably never tell you this. I only know because Lee Yeon—that's his brother—told Shin-joo, and Shin-joo told me."

"His older brother? The one who used to be a mountain god?"

"Yes, that's the one." Yu Ri nodded, and nothing prepared Ga Eul for her next words. "When Lee Rang was a child, his mother took him into the forest and left him to be eaten by the zombies that lived there. The ghosts of people who had starved to death. Lee Yeon found him, fought off the zombies, and took Lee Rang to live with him, and that's how he survived. He lived with his brother for about two years, and then Lee Yeon had to go away for a while, and when he came back, the forest they lived in had been destroyed...set on fire by humans...and he couldn't find Lee Rang anywhere. For a long time, Lee Rang thought that his brother had also abandoned him, along with his mother. That's why he hated his brother, and he hated humans."

"His mother left him there to die on purpose?" Ga Eul asked, alarmed.

"Lee Rang was never supposed to exist," Shin-joo explained. "Nine-tailed foxes aren't supposed to mate with humans, but Lee Rang's father had an affair with a human woman. I believe his father tricked his mother into thinking he was her human husband, whom he'd killed for not repaying a debt. For Lee Rang to be half-human and half-fox, he could never be fully accepted by humans or foxes, but especially not by humans, and given the circumstances, I suppose it's no surprise that his mother didn't feel particularly welcoming towards him."

"But still, it wasn't his fault, and to not be accepted by his own mother…" Ga Eul felt tears springing to her eyes again, but this time they weren't for herself. She'd known something must have happened to make Rang hate humans, but she'd had no idea it was something like that. She'd had no idea he'd been alone since he was a child.

"Lee Rang doesn't know that we know this," Yu Ri said, "so please don't tell him we said anything, but I wanted to tell you because...sometimes, when people have been mistreated or left alone for a long time, they latch onto anyone who shows them kindness and don't want to let go. That's why I stayed with Lee Rang even though I didn't have to. He was the only person who had been good to me for as long as I could remember. I'm not saying this so you'll forgive him. Of course, he should treat you properly. I just thought it would help to see things from his perspective."

"Are you saying he has a type of...separation anxiety?" Ga Eul asked. "Because he was abandoned as a child?" Even if Shin-joo thought it didn't make a difference, that diagnosis made sense to Ga Eul, actually. She'd seen a milder form of it plenty of times on the first week of school, how the youngest children clung onto their parents like the world would end if they had to spend several hours without them. In fact, it explained pretty much everything Rang had done—from wanting a date with her every day to wanting her to move in with him all of a sudden, right after she'd announced she would be going back to school soon. Even the stalking—he must have been pretty attached to her to have gone to such lengths to simply have a conversation with her.

"He's six hundred years old," Shin-joo reminded them again. "Regardless of what issues he has, if he hasn't recovered from that incident by now, I doubt he'll start anytime soon."

"Oh, can't you have some faith in him?" Yu Ri asked.

"This isn't about him. Even Lee Yeon says his brother never changes, and I don't want to give Miss Ga Eul false hope when, for six hundred years—"

"You really don't think he can grow up?" Ga Eul interrupted, addressing Shin-joo. "You don't think he can change?"

"He is grown up, and he hasn't changed," Shin-joo asserted.

"No," Ga Eul said softly. "He's a child."

"You mean, he acts like a child," Shin-joo corrected.

"He acts like a child because he thinks like one. Because he's scared, the way children are when they're afraid of losing something." Ga Eul said, frowning in concentration. The words she'd spoken so long ago to Yi Jeong came back to her: Children, when they see something they want, don't hesitate because they know if they lose it, they will cry.

There was also something she remembered from her early childhood education classes—an article about why young children have such a hard time sharing. Of course, the article had focused on the sharing of toys, and Ga Eul didn't like thinking of herself as a toy, but she supposed the same principles might apply to the Rang situation, given how possessive he was.

"Children," Ga Eul explained, "don't have many belongings that are specifically theirs, so the ones they do have, they form strong attachments to. They might not like the concept of sharing those objects at first because they don't understand that their things will be returned to them. It makes them anxious, so you have to work on it with them slowly. Back when I taught younger kids, if a kid had trouble sharing with other kids, I would make them practice sharing things with me first. Just small things, like a crayon. Once they figured out that they could trust me to give the item back, it made it easier for them to share with other people. The problem with sharing isn't necessarily a problem with letting someone borrow something. It's the fear that if you let something go, you won't get it back at all." Ga Eul bit her lip. Where was she going with this? "Or, in Lee Rang's case," she continued slowly, "seeing me every day, it's like he's a kid holding onto a safety blanket. Maybe, if he doesn't see me, he's afraid I'll disappear." Of course, it was also possible that Rang was simply a controlling jerk—he was a serial killer after all—but she refused to believe that, at least for the time being, at least until she'd had a chance to speak with him about what he'd done, which she fully intended to do now that she knew his history. She hadn't wanted drama, but when she'd chosen Rang, she'd known on some level he wouldn't be an easy choice. He'd admitted that he thought he'd be bad at having a relationship, and obviously he did have a lot of issues, but if he was willing to work on them, then she could have patience. She could wait.

"You got all of that from 'his mother left him in a forest?'" Shin-joo asked.

Ga Eul shrugged. She had to psycho-analyze her students all the time. Some of them needed different approaches than others.

"Does that mean you're going to forgive him?" Shin-joo asked.

"I'll forgive him if he apologizes to me and if he proves to me I can trust him and if he's willing to work on his issues."

"You're going to demand all that from someone you admit is a child?" Shin-joo looked both impressed and skeptical.

"Children are usually better at learning than adults if you find the right motivation for them," Ga Eul explained. "Some of them might learn faster or slower than others, but as long as they're making an effort, I think they should be rewarded." The question, of course, was whether or not Rang would make an effort, or if he would care to. She didn't know what was making her so optimistic. Maybe she had on her rose-colored glasses again.

"And don't say he shouldn't exist. If Lee Rang is my soulmate then, clearly, he is supposed to exist," Ga Eul stated firmly, feeling a sudden need to defend Rang's existence. "And you can't say he hasn't changed at all. He dated me. A human. Maybe that's slow progress, but it's something." It had to be something. It had to mean something. Otherwise, the past month of Ga Eul's life was a lie, and that was too cruel of a joke, even for a nine-tailed fox to play on her.


"I'll see you tomorrow, then?" Ga Eul asked, separating herself from Rang but holding out her hands for him to take. He latched onto them immediately and squeezed them.

"If you wait for thirty more minutes, it will already be tomorrow," he said, tugging her towards him, away from her apartment door. Ga Eul let him pull her two steps forward, then dug her heels in. They'd been doing this dance for ten minutes already.

"If I wait for thirty more minutes out here, I'll have frostbite," she said.

"We can wait in my car," Rang offered, gently tugging her again.

Ga Eul smiled.

"Or I can see you in daylight tomorrow"—she yawned—"and then we can do whatever you want."

"Twenty-nine more minutes." Rang checked the time on his fancy watch. "I can take you to get a hot chocolate."

"You can buy me a hot chocolate tomorrow." Ga Eul twisted her body, making Rang's arms sway with hers.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I won't offer to buy you one tomorrow, and then you'll be sad that you didn't take me up on my offer tonight."

"Anything you want to do tonight, we can do tomorrow. I promise," Ga Eul said, tiptoeing closer to him, and Rang tilted his head down to give her a penetrating stare.

"You shouldn't make promises to foxes unless you intend to keep them."

Ga Eul smiled, tipping her head back and arching up on her toes. He was always teasing her, warning her about the dangers of toying with foxes.

"Well, then, it's a good thing I like to keep my promises."