A/N: My next post will be on "Good Girl, Bad Fox" ;) But don't worry. If smut isn't your thing, you won't miss anything important to the plot by skipping that. When I post the next chapter on this main story, please be prepared for cotton-candy level fluff :)
Jae Kyung had called Ga Eul a few days ago, ecstatic that Woo Bin had asked her to marry him. She'd requested that Ga Eul be one of her bridesmaids, along with Jan Di. Not just one of her bridesmaids either. The maid of honor. There was no guessing who would be Woo Bin's best man.
Yi Jeong had been shockingly absent at Jan Di and Jun Pyo's wedding due to a family matter, but she should have known she couldn't avoid him forever, no matter how firmly she'd been trying. Since her best friend's wedding, she'd been throwing herself into her work and avoiding most group events. It was simply too difficult being constantly reminded of him, of a life she would never have, but this wedding was too important to miss, so she'd agreed to meet Jae Kyung at a coffee shop near her school. Jae Kyung still had a preference for lower end establishments that wouldn't make Ga Eul feel out of place. She was approachable and down-to-earth, and Ga Eul respected and appreciated that about her.
Perhaps a coffee date wouldn't be so bad. They wouldn't have to only talk about the wedding, and Ga Eul could catch up on all that Jae Kyung had been doing since her return from the U.S.
But where was this guy who supposedly would be picking up Kim Soo-oh?
Ga Eul checked the clock in the upper right corner of her computer screen for the twentieth time in—what?—five minutes. She bit her nails—a nasty habit. Not that she minded letting Soo-oh color at her desk while he waited on his ride—he was one of her favorite students and had a special place in her heart because of his difficult home life—but she knew if she couldn't meet with Jae Kyung today, the heiress would be gone overseas for two weeks on business, and that would only postpone the inevitable. And Ga Eul had been chewing her nails non-stop all day thinking about ways to avoid talking about Yi Jeong. And her stomach was in knots, and if she tapped her keyboard any harder, the keys would probably end up getting stuck, and—
"Time to go, Blacky."
Beside her, Soo-oh twisted himself around in his seat and burst out, "Ahjussi! I colored you a picture!"
"Oh." Ga Eul stood, realizing the voice had been talking to Soo-oh, and when she turned she saw who the voice was attached to: a tall, strikingly handsome man with piercing eyes that were full of boredom. He wore a tailored black suit by an expensive brand Ga Eul recognized only by spending so much time around the F4. Immediately, he struck her as an arrogant chaebol who probably couldn't care less how long Soo-oh had been waiting on him or how he'd affected her plans for the day. She knew the type well. Nonetheless, she mustered a polite smile and introduced herself.
"I'm Soo-oh's teacher, Chu Ga Eul. Are you the guardian who's supposed to pick him up?"
"Yes," he said simply, offering no further information about himself. He looked like he was in the last place he wanted to be, or like the world in general bored him to tears.
"May I see some identification, please?" she ventured coolly, not caring when his eyes narrowed in annoyance. Let him be annoyed. She sure was.
"Sorry?" He frowned in displeasure, like she'd asked him to fill out a ten page form.
"I can't just hand him over to anyone, you understand," she explained. "It has to be someone on his approved list. Do you mind if I see your driver's license?" She knew without asking that he had a driver's license and probably a foreign car idling out in front of the school. And his foreign car was probably parked in a spot not designated for parking, and he probably already had a ticket, and he probably didn't care.
Or maybe Ga Eul was misreading the situation because she was bitter, but what she didn't imagine was the resolutely fatigued look on the man's face as he produced his license from his wallet and held it out to her, like it strained him to be doing something so mundane.
His driver's license photo showed him smirking at the camera in a way that looked both careless and condescending.
Mister Lee Rang.
Ga Eul was spiraling—down, down into the darkest pit of her memories. She'd been trying to act okay earlier, but then she'd seen the ice skating rink, and though it wasn't the same rink Yi Jeong had brought her to on their fake date, she couldn't help but feel that the place was cursed somehow. She wanted to turn back. She wanted to run. It wasn't a logical thought, just a wrenching tug at her gut, an instinct of self-preservation. So when Rang had asked her to explain herself, she'd froze. Wouldn't Rang, of all people, find her pathetic?
He, who could slash with his claws and spit venom with his words as easily as he could flash a smile. He, for whom revenge was a centuries-old habit. He, who might have re-injured Yi Jeong's broken hand, quickly and without remorse, if the potter had so much as looked at him wrong.
Ga Eul had never told Yi Jeong how betrayed she'd felt when he didn't return, fearing he'd pity her for taking his promise so seriously. She hadn't even had the courage to yell at him, for as upset as she'd been, she'd also felt embarrassed at her naivete. And now, despite all of her nagging at Yi Jeong to be brave, she couldn't even put on a pair of ice skates.
Of course, Rang would find her pathetic, and now she'd hurt his feelings by withdrawing into herself. He'd thought she wanted to break up with him, after all he'd done for her during the past two weeks, and now Ga Eul felt guilty for not paying him any proper attention when she knew he had a history of people leaving him.
Too many thoughts and emotions bubbled to the surface at once for her to communicate them appropriately, however, so she cried instead of speaking, only able to demonstrate that something was terribly wrong and nothing more.
When Ga Eul came back to herself, she felt the weight of Rang's hand resting on top of her head, his fingers lazily tracing circles on her scalp. There were dark spots on his black dress pants where her tears had soaked them. Rang was very quiet and still, deliberately so, where normally he had a restless energy about him, like he was impatient with the pace of humanity, or the slowness of the earth's rotation. But even after her tears dried up and she quieted, he didn't demand for her to speak, so she gratefully took a moment to compose herself—as much as she could be composed after an outburst like that.
Ga Eul tried to focus on Rang's presence and nothing else—the crisp, clean scent of the forest that clung to his clothes, his steady breaths, his long legs and large hands.
Your pet fox is here now, he'd said. She'd missed his voice, teasing her and soothing her in equal measure. She'd missed the warmth and security he exuded.
She could hear the traffic noise outside—the car horns and the people chatting as they passed near Rang's car—and ordinarily the chaos of a busy street made her feel small and alone in her pain. But today she wasn't alone, and she wanted to be small, so small she could curl up against Rang's chest and fall asleep listening to the sound of his heartbeat.
Unfortunately, Rang didn't allow her to stay silent forever. Of course, he didn't. She should be amazed he had kept quiet for as long as he had.
"Jagiya?" His smooth, mellow voice washed over her. "You haven't told me what I can do. Foxes like to be useful. Usually for a price, but in your case"—he paused as though considering her case—"I will accept a kiss as payment."
Ga Eul hid a small smile in his pants leg at the teasing in his voice.
"Or if you don't want to pay with a kiss, I will accept another bowl of your naengmyeon," he informed her cheekily.
"I thought I got things for free," she croaked, "since I'm your girlfriend." She cleared her throat. "You said so."
"Of course you do, but...pets should get rewards. Like treats," he insisted.
"Like naengmyeon?"
"Exactly!"
Ga Eul smiled wider and laughed under her breath. She felt better already and marveled at how easily Rang could lighten her mood. She felt like her old self with him.
"See? You like making me naengmyeon. I know you do," Rang enthused. "So what can your amazingly powerful fox do for you today? Is someone bothering you? I can beat them up." Rang sounded delighted at the prospect, and Ga Eul took a moment to imagine Rang and Yi Jeong in a fistfight. There was no contest as to who would win, of course. Though she'd never seen Rang in action—she didn't remember much of him running off her attacker—she imagined that a fox who could wipe out an entire village singlehandedly would have no trouble taking down a single ceramics artist who already suffered from overconfidence.
Of course, she didn't want Yi Jeong to get hurt, no matter what he'd done to her, but the idea of Rang physically defending her was rather hot and sent an unbidden shiver down her spine.
Of course, there was no real point—or need—for him to go all the way to Sweden to accomplish such a thing. But she had no doubt he would if she asked him to. Plus, getting thoroughly trounced by Rang might bring Yi Jeong's cockiness down a notch.
Ga Eul bit back a conflicted smile.
What could Rang do for her? This, really. He could just be with her, and that would be enough.
She knew he wouldn't be satisfied with that, though. He would make her talk, and she needed to tell him about Yi Jeong anyway. He deserved to know, and obviously she still hadn't recovered from...from...whatever their relationship had been.
"No, it's not that," she answered. "I want to tell you, but you might find it silly since it happened so long ago." She picked a piece of lint from Rang's dress pants and watched it float to the floor of his car. She didn't lift her head from his lap. It was comforting to press her face against him, and it would be easier to explain herself if she didn't have to look at his face.
"When you've been alive for hundreds of years, 'long ago' is a relative term," Rang assured her. "If it happened during your lifetime, it's pretty recent."
Ga Eul shifted her head.
"Sometimes I forget how much older you are than me," she admitted. "I don't think you act like you're six hundred years old. But sometimes you say something, and it makes me feel really inexperienced at life."
"You think I'm a wise ahjussi?" Rang asked, and she could hear him rolling his eyes.
Ga Eul giggled and shook her head, pressing her cheek further into his pants leg.
"No. No, but you...I think you're better at navigating the world than I am, even if you don't always go about it in the best way. At least you have confidence in what you're doing. You're good at taking care of yourself. I like to think I'm good at taking care of myself, but I don't know."
There was a pause. Rang brushed her damp, tear-soaked hair away from her face. This made Ga Eul feel more exposed, but she'd also been practically eating her hair, so it was probably for the best.
"What's wrong?" he asked, and it was a difficult question to answer because at the moment she felt overwhelmed by all the things that were wrong. She didn't know where to start, so she said the first thought that came into her head, as it was brought on by Rang's excessive petting and his reassuring presence.
"I really like you," she said softly.
"You like me?" he asked in an amused tone. "You like your boyfriend? That's a problem? Humans are so complicated. Even I can't figure that one out."
"No, it's not a problem that I like you." Ga Eul raised her voice, then lowered it again. "It's that..." Ga Eul trailed off. She didn't know that this was the best time and place to spill out the whole story of Yi Jeong—they were in the backseat of his car, parked on the side of the street next to a busy park. It was cold outside and starting to get cold inside the—oh. Rang was draping her coat over her back.
"Aren't you cold?" he mumbled. "You're always cold." He squirmed behind her, and after a second, she felt the weight of another coat—a warmer coat—being placed over her feet. Rang's coat. He must have taken it off. She hoped he didn't get cold, though he always said that foxes liked the cold.
"Go on," Rang prompted. He pulled Ga Eul's coat up to her neck, as though he were tucking her in.
"Thank you," Ga Eul said quietly, snuggling into the warmth of the two coats. She stared at the sunlight reflecting off the center console for a long moment. Rang didn't rush her, but his fingers drummed her shoulder, giving away his impatience.
Taking a deep breath, she began, "When I was in high school, my best friend—her name is Geum Jan Di—got a swimming scholarship to a high school for rich kids…"
For so long, Ga Eul hadn't said a word about what happened with Yi Jeong. Of course, Jan Di knew Ga Eul had been in touch with Yi Jeong, but she'd also been busy with medical school and Jun Pyo being half a world away and as needy as ever. It had never seemed like a good time to bring up how much she missed Yi Jeong or how much she hoped things would turn out good for them. Or maybe she'd been afraid that voicing her hopes would jinx them. By the time Yi Jeong had broken her heart, there was so much she hadn't said to Jan Di already that it was easiest to simply withdraw into herself and into her work. As if by pretending that nothing had happened, eventually that would make it so. Yi Jeong had seemed so dead-set on pretending.
Pretending, pretending. Always pretending.
Ga Eul thought it would be awkward for Rang to be the first person she shared her story with, but the longer she talked, the more she found she had to say. And the more she said, the more relieved she felt not to be carrying her secret alone anymore. In fact, it was better this way. Rang didn't know Yi Jeong or any of the people she knew in high school. She didn't have to gloss over anything. She didn't have to be careful with her wording so as not to upset anyone.
She would not have figured Rang to be such a good listener, but he patiently waited for her to explain everything, though she often had to pause when her tears threatened to well up again. She finally made it through the whole story, though, from the time she met Yi Jeong in the porridge shop to their fake dates to their sporadic contact while he was in Sweden, all the way up to seeing Yi Jeong at Woo Bin and Jae Kyung's wedding the previous fall.
"I think the wedding made me realize everyone was moving on with their lives," she concluded, "and I was still stuck on something someone did to me over two years before. I felt like I had to do something or I'd just keep standing in one place. You were the only person I'd been interested in since Yi Jeong Sunbae, so I decided to ask you out." Ga Eul took in a heavy breath and slowly exhaled after she finished, glad to be free of the words at last. Rang had been clutching her hair increasingly tight, and with this admission his fingers jerked, making her wince.
"Sorry," he said, slipping his hand out of her hair.
"It's okay," she answered, placing her hand over his and guiding his fingers back to where they had been seconds before. She hadn't minded the pain until it was too much, and now it felt quite soothing, his fingers ghosting over the spot on her scalp that ached.
"What should I do?" Rang asked in a low, threatening voice. The words cut across his tongue, and Ga Eul tilted her head up as she rolled herself onto her back so she could look at his face. His eyes had turned so black she couldn't distinguish the pupil from the iris. His jaw was set in a hard line.
"Um...do?" Ga Eul mumbled, but Rang didn't look directly at her. He twisted his mouth and stared at the back of the front passenger seat.
"You told me who bothered you." His voice was filled with tension. "You want me to take care of it?"
"Take care of it?" Ga Eul repeated, and when Rang flicked his gaze down to her, she realized Rang had spoken the truth when he told her he liked making humans afraid. Staring into the black chasm of his eyes, she could see the promise of violence there, cold and calculated and unforgiving, and suddenly she knew he could be cruel and enjoy it.
But she also knew he was angry on her behalf, and his anger was understandable. She also knew that he'd spoken the truth when he told her he didn't like making her afraid and that only blind, hurt panic had made him lash out at her. She'd thought he'd looked intimidating before; now she knew she'd only seen glimpses of the bad fox behind the mischievous human. But Ga Eul was his 'little human,' as he liked to call her, and he was her 'pet fox,' and she wasn't afraid. Not of him.
However, she also didn't want a murder on her hands.
"No," Ga Eul said calmly, sitting up and throwing off the coats—her arm was falling asleep anyway, and her neck ached. "No, that's not why I told you that." She combed her fingers through his hair reassuringly. "I wanted you to know that the reason I've been acting so skittish isn't because of you. It's because someone really hurt me once, and I don't want it to happen again, so when you flipped out on me the other night…" She trailed off, not wanting to recount that whole affair, then resumed, "You told me not to let myself get bitten, but it seems like all I ever do is get bitten, and I don't even fight it." Ga Eul laughed nervously. "I have a problem," she said, continuing to part his hair to the appropriate side.
Rang stared at her, a scowl set in his face.
"So fight it," he said. "I told you. You have a pet fox. I can make that bastard's life hell."
Ga Eul smiled.
"I know," she said softly, patting his leg. "But I don't want to fight. I'm tired. I just want to be with you." She ran her fingers through his hair a final time. "I don't need you to avenge me. Just...please don't bite me. I'm asking nicely because I don't have special powers like you, and I'm really bad at defending myself, as you can see." Her tears threatened to well up again, and she blinked them away, clearing her throat. "I hate feeling so powerless," she quietly admitted, getting to the crux of her fears. She lowered her eyes to Rang's pants because she couldn't look at his face anymore. Maybe he was disappointed in her—she was disappointed in herself—or maybe he pitied her. Or maybe he thought that of course she was powerless—she was human. Maybe he wondered if the gods were mocking him by pairing him with someone so weak.
Her thoughts along this line abruptly ended when Rang's fingers scooped under her chin and tilted it up. Gently, he held her jaw in place so that she was forced to look him in the eyes again, but the icy chill in them had dissipated and a warm confidence reigned in its place.
"How would I bite you? I'm your pet fox," Rang asserted, amusement creeping into his tone. "And you're not powerless at all. Do you know any other humans who have a pet fox? I'll tell you a secret." He rubbed his thumb over her jawbone. "There are exactly zero other humans in the universe who have one." A tear rolled down her cheek as he spoke, one she hadn't been able to hold back, and he swiped it away. He wore all black today, as he often did—a solid black suit and a black shirt with a decorative black pattern swirled into its silky finish. His shirt was open at the neck, revealing the black choker he'd put around her neck once like a claim. Mine.
I'm your pet fox. You're not powerless at all.
Ga Eul smiled, just a bit.
"Even so, you're the one with special powers, not me," she countered, wrapping her hand around his wrist to pull his fingers from her face. Not that she minded him holding her chin—he did that sometimes when they kissed—but she felt shy under his intense stare. She kissed his knuckles, then brought his hand to rest on her lap, cupping it between her own hands.
"Of course you have special powers." Rang scoffed like she'd claimed not to have limbs. "The underworld gods might hate me, but they wouldn't pick just any human to be my soulmate. And I wouldn't be just any human's pet, only yours. I told you. You're warm and bright and special." Rang smiled, but his confidence in her only made Ga Eul feel more inadequate. Once, she'd been blindly optimistic, so peppy and cheerful and full of belief that the world, at its core, was a good one. She tried to still feel that way, to recapture her former self—she tried so hard—but more often than not, she failed.
"Bright?" Ga Eul repeated, glancing past Rang, out the window. "I don't feel very bright," she confessed.
Rang frowned.
"But you're always smiling," he insisted. "You're so irritatingly pleasant that even I couldn't hate you."
"I'm always smiling because you make me laugh," she said, looking him dead in the eyes.
His face softened; he looked pleased by this admission, and Ga Eul smiled to show him that she meant it. She was about to give him another compliment when he bent his head and kissed the corner of her mouth.
"Bright," he admonished when he leaned back.
Ga Eul chuckled.
"Okay, okay," she conceded, lacing their fingers together.
It was true. What she'd said about him making her laugh. At first, it had been small things he would say or do when she'd come over to Shin-joo and Yu Ri's. Then one day she was on the bus heading to their apartment, and she realized she was smiling and hoping Rang would be there. And he was there. He was always there. Always.
She guessed he had liked seeing her too.
"Did you really disguise yourself as an old lady so you could talk to me on the bus?" Ga Eul asked, studying their joined fingers.
"Every day for a week," Rang answered.
Ga Eul smiled, her tears continuing to fall but for a different reason now. She swiped her cheeks with the back of her free hand.
"That was sweet. Thank you."
"I thought you said it was stalking."
She shrugged.
"Still sweet," Ga Eul assured him. Sure, it was kind of creepy, but it was also flattering. It was warm and caring in a way she wouldn't have expected Rang to be capable of by taking him at face value. Like the way he was fulfilling all of her requests. Like the hobby he'd chosen.
Of all the hobbies he could have chosen, he'd picked something that required him to take care of another living thing. When he'd told her he wanted to raise a puppy, Ga Eul's heart immediately warmed at the thought, then sank. She'd felt guilty. When she'd made up the hobby suggestion, she'd thought Rang would pick something physical, like kickboxing. Just something to channel all that restless energy into. She was pleasantly surprised by his choice but also a bit concerned. Getting a dog wasn't a light decision. It was a whole change in lifestyle. She'd never had a dog, but she knew from taking care of her cat that animals required a lot of time and attention. She wasn't sure if Rang fully realized what he was signing up for, even if he'd had a puppy as a child. That had been six hundred years ago; he'd been living in a forest; and besides all that, she figured his older brother probably did any difficult tasks, like training the dog properly. Rang had been so dead set on picking something she would like that maybe she'd pushed him too far.
Taking a deep breath, Ga Eul decided to address the situation head on. Obviously, depriving herself of both sleep and Rang's company wasn't working—for either of them—and even if her rules had managed to push Rang into rekindling his relationships with other people, it wasn't fair to treat Rang like one of her students. Even if he acted like a child sometimes, he wasn't one. He was her boyfriend, and either she could trust him or she couldn't.
"I'm sorry," she began. "It was wrong of you to ask me to stop teaching, but it was also wrong of me to ask you to stop being yourself. Your powers make you feel safe, right? Well, my rules make me feel safe. But you don't have to follow my rules if you don't want to. I mean, I don't want you to get a dog just because you think I want you to. I mean...you can forget the list I made. I was just...scared at the time and didn't know what else to do. So don't feel like you have to do any of it. You don't. Really. You don't need to...to change or do anything. I like you the way you are." She squeezed his hand and looked up at him with this last statement. He was staring at her with a cool, unreadable expression. His black clothing brought out the darkness of his eyes; it made his stare all the more penetrating.
"Even the stalking?" he finally asked.
"Well...maybe we don't have to call it stalking. But I like that you wanted to see me that much. You're very persistent," Ga Eul explained, blushing and lowering her eyes to their joined hands again. She'd chased after one person for so long; it was nice to have someone chase after her for a change. Rang knew exactly what he wanted, even if the methods he used to get it were questionable, and she liked that about him. She liked that she was what he wanted.
Rang stayed silent for a moment; then she suddenly found herself being pulled onto his lap.
"You like me being persistent?" he asked once he had her there.
Ga Eul nodded. She was unnervingly close to his face, and his heated kiss from the previous weekend rushed back to her. Unable to stop her eyes from flitting down to his lips, she bit down on her own lip anxiously.
"You like me the way I am?" he asked, and Ga Eul nodded again.
"However you are"—she smoothed out his shirt lapels—"you make me happy." She smiled, feeling the truth of those words.
"I make you happy?" Rang repeated slowly, as though he wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly.
"You make me very happy," she assured him. She leaned against him and laid her head on his shoulder. "Should we go to your apartment and cuddle and watch Amazing Saturday?" she suggested, suddenly eager to be alone with him.
"My apartment? Not yours?" he asked, resting his hand on her waist. His voice had gotten uncharacteristically soft.
"My apartment's a bit of a mess. I haven't exactly cleaned it in two weeks," she confessed guiltily. She probably should have cleaned while she was busy tossing and turning in the middle of the night. If she couldn't sleep, she should have done something useful instead of lying there feeling sorry for herself. But then, there was no use despairing of that now.
"Whatever my little human wants then," Rang answered, his voice regaining its normal humor. "Your pet fox will do what you tell him to do. But just so you know...I'm still not sharing my popcorn."
"I wasn't expecting you to," Ga Eul replied gently. "I know you don't like sharing your food." She kissed his neck and smiled up at him to let him know that was okay with her. He didn't have to share his popcorn or his cake; he didn't have to magically start enjoying human activities or lower the intensity of his affections to what most would consider an appropriate level. Maybe he wasn't how she'd expected her soulmate to be, but then, Lee Rang had never been what she'd expected him to be, and for that, she was glad.
Someone had sent Ga Eul coffee. The large cream-colored box tied with pink ribbon had arrived at her desk while she was teaching her class, and when she saw it, she immediately thought it was from Jae Kyung, who must have been making up for their date in that extravagant way she had, though Ga Eul had been the one to miss it; Ga Eul even told a few of her coworkers this as she stowed the box away for later. Before she went home that evening, though, she inspected the package more closely and found that there was an unfamiliar name on it: Lee Rang.
Lee Rang?
Ga Eul frowned.
Did she know someone named Lee Rang? Someone who would send her coffee? She turned the name over in her mind. Coming up with nothing, she resumed gathering up her purse and her satchel; not until she was rummaging through her center desk drawer for one of her grading pens did Ga Eul remember the man who had picked up one of her students early in the week. Her eyes landed on the stash of crayons she kept in her drawer, and suddenly she remembered Soo-oh drawing a picture for him. She'd berated the man for being late.
Ga Eul opened the coffee package, and sure enough, there was a short apology note explaining the box's contents: Since you missed coffee with your friend. Lee Rang.
That was it. That was all the note said, but it was something.
Huh. Odd. She wouldn't have expected a gesture like that from him, not at all. Not the gift, certainly not the apology note. It wasn't like he had anything to gain from getting in her good graces. If anything, she'd been a bit out of line the other day when she'd kept pestering him about the fact that he'd made her miss her meeting. Well, she'd been too worked up at the time to let it slide.
In any case, he hadn't looked like the type to do something like this at all. She'd doubted he cared about her insignificant problems or if she thought him rude. She'd doubted he cared what anyone thought of him, particularly those he considered beneath him.
But then, who was she to judge? Obviously, she'd been wrong. She'd been expecting the worst of people lately. Perhaps hanging out at too many high society functions, not to mention the whole situation with Yi Jeong, had left a bitter taste in her mouth for anyone whose wealth was such a tangible, pronounced part of their appearance. She ought to wash her mouth out with soap. If she judged Lee Rang by his clothing, how was she any better than all the snobs she'd met at parties who judged her for her borrowed clothes and middle-class occupation? Really, this gesture was nice of him. She should thank him for it. Yes, she should.
Hmmm...maybe…she could make him some kimchi. Her mother's recipe.
She tried not to think about the fact that all things considered, she'd found him quite handsome, and a small part of her hoped sending him the kimchi would give her a chance to talk with him again.
Rang drove Ga Eul back to her apartment so she could pack an overnight bag, but she made him wait in the car while she rummaged through her few clean clothes and gathered her school things just in case she didn't return home the following night either. Not that Ga Eul had ever spent a single night at Rang's apartment, much less two in a row, but she was rather sick of her own apartment and eager to make up for lost time, so she didn't think twice about throwing her makeup and every toiletry she might conceivably need into her bag.
"You packed a lot to come over and watch a TV show," Rang noted, smirking, when she returned to the car.
"Well, don't get too excited and offer me a room again," Ga Eul said, smiling to show she was joking. That she could joke about what happened now. She hoped it wasn't too soon and was relieved when Rang snarked back, "I won't even offer you a drawer," as he placed her bag into his trunk.
The drive over to his apartment was mostly silent but companionable and rid of the tension from earlier in the day. When they arrived, Rang carried her bag up while holding her hand, and when they stepped off the elevator to his floor, Ga Eul expected to feel her apprehension return, but it didn't. She remembered fleeing down this same hallway, but it felt like a dream that had happened ages ago, possibly because Rang's hand was so warm, and he didn't let go of her hand even to open the door. He merely set her light purple bag down in the corridor, tugged her inside, then turned back around to grab it. Once they'd taken their shoes and coats off—Rang did let go of her hand for that—and he'd placed her bag next to the couch in the center of the main room, Ga Eul became acutely aware of the silence again. Now it was neither companionable nor awkward but something else entirely—something charged and expectant, like the air right before a rainstorm.
When they had been talking in his car earlier, the presence of people outside the car windows had kept Ga Eul's thoughts from drifting towards truly inappropriate things. Now she couldn't help it.
She had packed a lot to come over and watch a TV show.
"So...there's a few hours between now and when Amazing Saturday airs. What should we do?" Rang asked. There was a suggestion there, in the gleam of his eyes and the lazy twist of his mouth, but he didn't move towards her, didn't touch her. In fact, his hands were in his pockets, as though he were controlling himself.
"Um...Do you want to pick since I know I ruined your ice skating idea?" she asked tentatively. Though she had many indecent ideas that he would probably enjoy hearing come from her mouth, she didn't want to be the one to say them. She didn't want to make the first move. Logically, she knew they had already done so much, and it had only been a few weeks since then, but so many things had changed in that short period of time. She felt like they were different people. Hopefully, though, Rang would be as forward as he always was, and she could get what she wanted without voicing it.
To her surprise, he shook his head.
"I'm your pet. What are we doing?" He cocked his head the way an animal might when waiting for a human to speak or approach, and he stood there, just stood there, hands in his pockets, not moving. And she knew Rang. She knew this was not what he did. He didn't stand there and let things happen to him. He didn't freely give anyone power over him, least of all a human, and even if she had been a fox, she couldn't quite imagine him doing this. No, if he wanted her the way his eyes said that he wanted her, he would have already pinned her against the door with his inhuman strength and taken half of her clothes off. He would have used his claws to slice through the fabric, and then he would have bitten her neck and gripped her thighs roughly…
Ga Eul's face burned. She tried to think of something mundane, but her breathing was already shallow, and she bet Rang could sense how affected she was because couldn't foxes sense those things? Probably. He was still standing there though. He was waiting on her, waiting on her decision.
Ga Eul swallowed again. She'd never felt in control of a situation like this, but she liked it even if it made her slightly uncomfortable. Maybe Rang was right. How could she be powerless if she had a nine-tailed fox at her command?
Summoning her courage, Ga Eul walked slowly towards him, only stopping when their toes nearly touched. He loomed over her, a dark velvet shadow of a man, with muscles she could see through the taut stretch of his shirt. Still, he didn't move. His hands remained in his pockets. She lifted her face up to his, but instead of arching up on her toes to reach him, she stayed in place, knowing he'd bend down to her.
"Kiss me," she said.
And he did.
