A/N: Fluff. Italics are flashbacks. Next chapter will be Ha Eun's 100th Day Celebration (Baek Il).
Also, today is my five year anniversary writing fanfic! On this day, five years ago, I posted my first chapter of my SoEul fic Heart of Porcelain, and I was so very nervous about it. Thanks to all my wonderful readers and reviewers who have made writing in this fandom so fun and rewarding :)
Perhaps Rang should have had something for them to eat at his apartment, but he'd hardly expected Ga Eul to come home with him at the beginning of yesterday. Besides, he wanted to taste Ga Eul's food again. The homemade naengmyeon she'd given him for Christmas had been delicious, and he'd kicked himself for not tasting her kimchi before.
Currently, Ga Eul was standing in the middle of Rang's kitchen, swaying from side to side on her bare feet as she mouthed something to herself while she stared at his phone. She'd finished a grocery order a few minutes ago, and now she was ordering takeout for breakfast. He almost couldn't believe that the last time they'd been in this apartment together, things had ended so badly, not with her twirling around in his kitchen in her white sweatpants and purple t-shirt. The marks on her neck were so lovely, having come from his mouth.
She also wasn't wearing a bra. He could tell, and he was trying not to dwell on that knowledge before a certain part of him became...uncomfortable. The way it had when she'd been kissing his neck. He'd had to get up and distract himself with the idea of food. Usually, he could keep his physical urges in check around Ga Eul, but this morning he couldn't help himself. He was simply too excited from what he had finally gotten to do the night before.
Yes, it had taken him much longer than he would have liked or normally would have had patience for, but he'd finally managed to get his little human into his bed. They hadn't gone as far as Rang would have preferred, but he felt accomplished knowing he had made Ga Eul feel good. He'd even been able to calm her when she got nervous, and she'd let him lead her along after that, so trusting. It had seemed so important, once, to go all the way with her as soon as he got the opportunity, but somehow, his priorities had shifted, and he hadn't even realized how much they had shifted until she had offered herself up to him on a silver platter and he could tell she wasn't ready for that. So he'd stopped. Rather than take what he could get while he could still get it, he'd wanted to love her properly. He'd promised to take care of her, and it felt even more important now, given what a questionable job she'd done of taking care of herself in the past, that he do as he'd promised.
Was this what it felt like to not be afraid? To not feel a panicked sense of urgency at every turn? To be able to see into the future, just a little bit, and picture Ga Eul still by his side?
She kept twirling a loose wisp of her hair around her finger, and Rang wanted to unclip the rest of her hair and watch it tumble down her back and shimmer in the sunlight now pouring in through the window, but she was too far away from him, and the moment to act on that particular urge ended as she turned back to him and slid his phone across the kitchen counter.
"Done," she said with a genuine smile, a carefree and inviting one like he hadn't seen in weeks. "Are you sure you don't want to know what I ordered, in case you don't like any of it?" she asked.
"I told you I want a surprise from my girlfriend."
"You know, normally people don't demand surprises from other people." Ga Eul leaned over the counter, bracing herself on her elbows. Her tone was scolding, but her eyes were amused. "It takes away the element of...well...surprise." She was close enough to kiss. He could smell her shampoo, something light and floral. Cherry blossoms.
Rang pecked her on the cheek before she could blink.
"Surprise," he said, grinning cheekily.
Ga Eul stuck out her tongue.
Rang pouted.
"You're supposed to kiss me back," he complained.
"Says who?" Ga Eul arched her eyebrow.
"I'm a fox. The rule is a kiss for a kiss."
"I thought it was a favor for a favor. I did you a favor. I ordered all that food for you, and now you've only given me one lousy kiss. Pfft. What type of fox are you?" She looked down her nose at him, and Rang latched onto the wrist of her right hand and didn't let her pull away.
"The kind that bites when he doesn't get a kiss." Bringing her fingers to his lips, he gently bit her knuckle. Then he pressed several kisses to the inside of her wrist, looking up into her eyes as he did so, and that had the desired effect of unsettling her. She stayed perfectly still while he kissed her, but when he finished, she blushed and shyly tugged her hand out of his grip. She'd been blushing all morning at every mildly suggestive thing he'd said—and even in some instances where he hadn't been suggesting anything at all. Sometimes her innocence frustrated him to death, but at other times, like now, he found it adorably entertaining. It was fun to tease her before going in for the kill. As he'd discovered the day before, the anticipation had made victory that much sweeter.
"So what should we do while we wait for the food?" Ga Eul asked, predictably changing the subject.
What should they do? He wanted to tease her some more, and then he wanted to repeat yesterday, several times, and then he wanted to cuddle since they'd never gotten around to it. He wanted to wrap Ga Eul in the tightest hug and squeeze her until she laughed and told him to stop. He'd thought that after getting what he wanted he would feel satisfied; instead, his longing to touch her and taste her and mark her as his had only grown stronger.
But Ga Eul had wandered over to the freezer, saying she was going to put ice on her neck again and then maybe she ought to call her parents, just for a moment, and Rang realized with some frustration that now was not the time. Besides, he was supposed to be letting her decide what to do instead of pushing her into things. All that patience only to be patient again…
Rang squirmed in his seat.
Pet fox. I am a pet fox, he recited to himself.
Well, one part of him was not being patient. Perhaps he should go deal with that.
"I'm going to take one of those miserable showers," he announced, standing. "Maybe by the time I get dressed the food will be here. Then...we can do whatever you want."
"Oh, we can watch the Amazing Saturday episode since we missed it!" Ga Eul noted excitedly, holding an ice pack to the side of her neck.
"Sure," Rang agreed as he wandered back to his bedroom to pick out something to wear. "Whatever you want," he repeated, mostly to remind himself.
'Whatever you want,' Rang internally mimicked as he grabbed a clean pair of light blue sweatpants and a white t-shirt. What about what I want? he grumbled. I've been doing what you want for three whole weeks.
No, no, he scolded himself. Pet fox. Be a pet fox.
I don't like being a pet fox! I mean, I do, but…this is annoying.
No buts.
But she likes me being persistent! She said so!
She already agreed to come back during the week. Don't push it.
Then maybe she'll agree to more!
Ah, did you see her? She's dancing around like a field mouse. One wrong move, and she'll scamper away...It was nice when she did that thing to my neck though...
And now we have a problem again.
This is going to be a long Sunday, Rang thought as he shut the bathroom door behind him.
Thankfully, by the time he emerged from the bathroom, Rang felt more relaxed, and his hunger for breakfast had overridden his hunger for...other activities. Ga Eul had resumed writing in her notebook, and Rang collapsed next to her on the couch, still towel-drying his hair. He peeked over Ga Eul's shoulder at her neat handwriting and asked her what she was doing. Maybe he was still trying to distract himself, but he was also mildly curious as to what was so important that she'd been working on it at six on a Sunday morning.
"Huh?" Ga Eul looked over at him dazedly, then blinked, seeming to come back to herself.
"What are you working on?" He tapped her notebook.
"Oh." A spark shone in Ga Eul's eyes, the same warm glow that had lit up her face when she'd talked about her students. "I'm making a lesson plan," she said happily.
"What's that?" Rang asked, assuming it was what it sounded like but wanting to hear her talk about it nonetheless. He'd always liked hearing the enthusiasm in her voice when she was explaining concepts to Soo-oh.
"Basically just what it says," Ga Eul explained. "Teachers have to plan their lessons for every day in advance—well, you're supposed to anyway. See?" Ga Eul flipped the notebook around so he could see her neat penmanship detailing Monday's lesson for Korean language. Rang took the notebook from her and turned the page. There was a second lesson for Math. Then an art lesson. Then a science lesson. Then a social studies lesson. He flipped through several pages until he reached the plans for Tuesday. There were a lot of subjects and even more topics under each general heading, and all Rang could think was that Ga Eul must be smart to teach all of that by herself.
Rang hadn't gone to school; he'd been banned after the incident with his claws, and during that time, the persecution in the village had escalated for him and his mother. He had learned to read and write during his time with Yeon; Yeon had also taught him a lot about the natural world, given his position as a mountain god. He'd taught Rang how to play baduk and how to fly a kite. Mostly, though, Yeon had taught him martial arts, the histories and secrets of the gods and other supernatural beings, and other things Rang would need to know only because he was a half-fox. But Rang's human education had been very scattered. He knew things because he'd learned them as he'd needed to or he'd taught himself, but by modern standards, he'd hardly been educated at all. Those dumb kids didn't know how lucky they were to have Ga Eul as their teacher.
Rang realized he'd been staring at Ga Eul's notebook for too long, unresponsively, and now Ga Eul looked concerned.
"You must be smart to teach all of this by yourself," he remarked, closing the notebook and handing it back.
"Not any more than the other teachers," Ga Eul replied, shrugging off the compliment. "We all teach the same subjects. Actually, out of all the teachers at my school, I probably know the least since I'm the youngest. That's why I work extra hard. I'm still learning how to do my job."
"Still...you're doing all this work on your day off. You must be good."
"Thank you," Ga Eul said. She smiled, the spark in her eyes directed at him, and he couldn't help but be reminded of what she'd said the day before.
You make me very happy.
I'm always smiling because you make me laugh.
I like you the way you are.
He didn't know why just thinking about her saying those words made his insides tingle. His chest flooded with warmth. There was a lump in his throat when he tried to swallow.
The memory of Ga Eul sitting next to him in his car flashed before him. She'd been holding his hand, and she'd squeezed it as she'd made that declaration, as if to physically confirm that she enjoyed being with him, enjoyed touching him. He, who had always been lacking something. He, who had done so many things wrong early in his life that it hardly mattered what he did now. He, whose very nature was deceitful and chaotic. He had always been too much of a fox for humans or too human for those who weren't. He didn't quite fit anywhere, and he didn't expect to. He didn't expect anyone to accept him. He didn't expect anyone to trust him. He didn't expect anyone to like him, least of all someone like Ga Eul. But even after all he'd done to her, she did like him. She wanted to be with him.
It was an overwhelming thought, a foreign sensation. Suddenly, he found himself needing space from her before he said something foolish.
Thankfully, at that exact moment, the doorbell rang.
"Oh!" Ga Eul said, popping up from the couch. "That must be the delivery guy."
"I thought you'd like a traditional breakfast," Ga Eul said a few minutes later as she pulled to-go containers out of a takeout bag. She opened the containers to reveal short ribs, rice, stewed fish, radish strip kimchi, spicy seafood salad, and cucumber soup. Rang's mouth watered. He did much prefer this type of breakfast to pastries and cereals.
"I like your surprises," he enthused, and Ga Eul beamed as he took a seat on a barstool. She served them food in the bowls and plates she'd discovered when she'd rummaged through the cabinets earlier. Then she took the seat next to him, and they chowed down on the breakfast in silence. Rang had been hungry, but to his amusement, Ga Eul ate faster than him and kept filling her dishes up with more and more food.
"Slow down before you choke," he admonished, shoving Ga Eul's glass of water towards her. "And save some for me."
Ga Eul glanced over at him and swallowed her latest bite with some effort.
"Sorry." She smiled sheepishly. "I guess I'm extra hungry since I didn't eat dinner yesterday."
"You eat a lot for someone so small."
She laughed, and as she rocked from side to side, their shoulders brushed.
"I get told that a lot," she replied. Pausing her assault on their takeout meal, Ga Eul took a few meditative sips of water. When she set her water glass back down, she turned to Rang and asked eagerly, "So...what was your favorite food when you were a kid?" She was doing it again, trying to get him to talk about himself, about his past, and he didn't understand why. Couldn't they just be together in the present? She already knew he'd been on a murderous crusade at her age. Why would she care to know something as trivial as his favorite food?
"I can't remember back that far," Rang answered, poking his rice with his chopsticks. "Would you remember what you ate when you were basically a baby?"
"But you must remember something. If not food, then...what's something you liked to do when you were a kid? When you lived with your brother? I know what I learned about the Joseon period in school, but it's kind of cool getting to talk to someone who actually lived during that time. Do you realize you've lived through six hundred years of history?" Ga Eul noted this with fascination.
"It's not as exciting as it sounds," Rang said, stuffing another bite of rice and kimchi in his mouth.
Ga Eul shrugged.
"It's exciting to me." She gave him a pleading look. "Come on. I'll never get to meet you back then, so I'd like to know something about you. Anything you remember."
"I remember we ate rice," Rang replied.
I'll never get to meet you back then.
Hah!
He hoped they hadn't met during one of her previous lives. For all he knew, he'd killed her immediately, without having any idea who she was to him, and that thought chilled him to the bone. He choked it down with a bite of seafood and chased it with water.
At his silence, Ga Eul turned back to her food with a dejected posture, and after a few moments of watching her pick at her food, Rang said, with forced casualness, "Look, there's nothing interesting about how I grew up, and the food was pretty depressing. I was a commoner until…" Rang paused. Until what? He'd been a commoner until he'd been abandoned in the woods by his mother, then rescued by his brother, who'd fed him and clothed him like royalty for two years before abandoning him too? "Azaleas," he deflected.
"What?"
"Azalea flowers. You asked me what my favorite thing to eat was. In the spring, my brother picked the pink azaleas that grew in our forest, and we ate them. So always in the spring, I'd want to eat azaleas."
Ga Eul's face lit up as though he'd told her his deepest childhood secret.
"See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" She nudged him with her elbow and set about cheerfully eating the rest of her plate.
No, that hadn't been hard. It was an okay fact to give her. A safe one.
"Do you want to know something I liked to do when I was a kid?" Ga Eul asked when she'd finished her meal and was shoving her empty plate away. She wiped her mouth on a disposable napkin, then balled it up and threw it onto her plate.
"Yes?" he asked, curious.
She turned back to Rang, and her eyes grew bigger and brighter than before.
"Whenever it rained, I'd make a pillow fort and stay under it and watch movies or read. Do you want to make one? It's pretty gloomy outside." She pointed towards the window, where dark clouds had recently vanquished the sun. "I think it's about to storm."
A pillow fort?
Wasn't that for...children?
Well, she did say she used to make them as a child.
Ga Eul looked so excited for her suggestion, though, that Rang found himself nodding and agreeing before he could catch himself. This seemed like a very not-bad-fox thing to do, but so were most things he did with her.
Ga Eul wasted no time preparing the fort; she moved about Rang's apartment with purpose and confidence as she had when she'd made him take all those photos in front of those silly Christmas trees. First, she assembled all the bedcovers and pillows he owned; then she arranged his kitchen chairs in front of the couch so that she could drape the white comforter from the guest bedroom—he'd grabbed it for her—over the chairs, making a tent in front of the TV. From there, she slid the fluffy blue carpet from the guest bedroom inside so that it formed a mat, over which she laid the grey-and-white comforter from his bed. Once she'd deemed the spot comfortable, she filled it in with Rang's two extra blankets, a gray knit one and a fluffy dark blue one, and all of the pillows from the couch and the two bedrooms.
"Whenever I see pictures of this, a lot of people put string lights too, but I never had any," she said as she lined the walls of the fort with blue and yellow throw pillows.
"There are string lights in the other bedroom," Rang offered carefully, and it took her another moment of fluffing pillows, but Ga Eul soon poked her head out from the fort.
"There's lights?" Ga Eul asked, and Rang couldn't read her expression. "I don't remember there being lights."
"The butterflies," he explained. "Here. I'll show you." He held out his hand to help her up, and there was a hint of hesitation in her face, but she gave him her hand and let him pull her to her feet, then lead her into the guest bedroom.
"Oh." Ga Eul gave an embarrassed laugh once they were standing in front of the strings of purple and blue butterflies hung behind the guest bed. "I didn't realize those were lights. I thought they were just decorations. They're pretty."
"They're yours," Rang said, taking them down from the wall. "You can do whatever you want with them...You can take them home if you like." He smiled encouragingly.
"Um...Oh...Okay, thank you." Ga Eul gave him a small smile as he handed the lights over to her.
"There's something else," Rang continued while he had her in a good mood. He'd set her stuffed fox on the bedside table when he was fetching the bedding, but now he snatched it up and held it out to her. "For you," he said, and Ga Eul's smile broke open, becoming light and free again.
"Awww, he's so cute!" she gushed, accepting the fox, "Thank you." She looked delighted and so adorable as she clutched the fox and the butterfly lights to her chest, and Rang suddenly felt like he had butterflies in his chest.
"Come on. Let's put up the lights," he urged, ushering her out of the room before the swell of emotion overtook him.
In the living room, they draped the butterflies over the kitchen chairs, tucking them beneath the overhead comforter, so that they dangled from the ceiling of the fort, and when they turned out all the lights in the apartment and pulled the curtains shut, Ga Eul crawled into the fort first, followed by Rang, where the butterflies greeted them like living stars, with a soft glow that was more warm than bright. And Rang had always thought of the dark as something humans feared, as a means to intimidate them or to play tricks. He could see well in the dark, but all the same, he'd never found much comfort in the night, and he hadn't been too impressed with the idea of a fort when Ga Eul had suggested it, but now that they were there, he had to admit it felt cozy—the opposite of scary, in fact. It felt safe. Like somewhere he could cuddle with Ga Eul and pretend the outside world didn't exist, that in fact the rest of the apartment didn't exist, because from this vantage point, they were almost completely insulated from it.
Rang dropped onto the fluffy white bed pillows, underneath the blankets that Ga Eul had arranged, and she cuddled up next to him without a word, draping her leg over his waist. She'd brought her stuffed fox, and she tucked the animal under her arm so that it lay on his stomach, right below her head, which rested on his chest. Once they were situated, enveloped in the warmth of the blankets and each other, Rang flicked on the TV, and they watched the Amazing Saturday episode that they'd missed the previous evening. Outside, it began raining hard, just as Ga Eul had predicted, and even above the noise from the TV, he could hear the steady drumming of raindrops against the windowpane. Rang had always liked the sound of rain even if he hated the way it felt, and it sounded extra calming today, like the way he'd described Ga Eul's presence once. For the next few hours, they didn't speak much, as if they'd made a tacit agreement to only communicate through touches. Sometimes Ga Eul would graze her fingertips over his arm, and sometimes he would sift her hair, which she'd unclipped. Sometimes Ga Eul would rearrange herself to accommodate her sore thighs, but she would always at least hold onto his hand or his arm. They made two separate bowls of popcorn and stole popcorn from each other anyway, and when Rang stole a kiss from her, Ga Eul's mouth tasted like salt.
When the Amazing Saturday episode finished, Ga Eul talked him into watching a comedy-drama about a doctor who saw ghosts. After two episodes of that, she clicked the TV off, and he glanced down at her. They were sitting up, but she was slumped against his arm, leaning her head on his shoulder. The blankets had gathered about their waists some time ago, and though he couldn't see her face, he saw that she was fiddling with the stuffed fox's ears.
"Um," Ga Eul began uncertainly. "I have a question."
"Yes?"
"I was wondering if maybe you could show me…the animals."
Rang blinked.
Animals?
"You know, the ones you said you could do. All different kinds. Not just cats." She lifted her head and gave him a hopeful look, and the request was so startling that Rang's mind momentarily went blank.
She wanted him to...shapeshift?
"But why can't I learn shapeshifting?" Rang complained, trailing along after his brother as Lee Yeon made his way through their forest, performing his routine check on the plants and creatures that lived there.
"Because it's something only disgraceful foxes do to trick innocent people," Lee Yeon called back to him. "I only told you about it so you'd be warned."
"But what if I don't use it to trick people? What if I just do it for fun?" Rang tripped over a tree root as he ran to catch up with his brother, but he caught himself on Lee Yeon's flowing white hanbok, bringing the older fox to a halt. Under Lee Yeon's piercing stare, Rang quickly righted himself and gave him a plaintive look.
"Please, hyung," he begged. "Can't I at least turn into a fox, since I am a fox?"
"Half-fox," his brother corrected.
"But I want to do everything a normal fox can do. You said I could live as a fox or as a human. I want to live as a fox."
His brother studied him for a long moment without speaking, like he was trying to determine if Rang was worthy to live as a fox. Rang wanted so badly to be a fox; when he grew up, he wanted to be just like his brother, able to defend himself and take care of the forest they lived in. He wanted to do everything his brother could do, and that included shapeshifting.
"No," his brother answered.
"But—"
"Don't ask again. Now help me check on these trees." Lee Yeon turned away and resumed methodically tracing his usual path through the forest, leaving Rang to sulk behind him.
Ga Eul wanted him to shapeshift.
She wanted him to.
That was...unexpected.
"But only if you want to," she hastily amended, glancing down. She stroked the stuffed fox's back, and the gesture made Rang irrationally jealous of the animal.
If he wanted to. Sure, he wanted to. He just hadn't thought she would want to see it again. Ever.
Then again, he hadn't quite imagined that he could make her happy being as he was, but yesterday she'd stunned him with her words.
Now, she'd stunned him again.
"Rang?" Ga Eul glanced up at him, and he recomposed himself.
"Of course," he answered, a bit too loudly in the small, still space. "I can do any animal you want. What would you like to see?"
"Um, can you turn into an actual fox? Like this stuffed one?" Ga Eul gestured to the fox who sat nestled on her lap.
"I can do a better fox than that. Watch." Throwing off the covers, Rang crawled over to the entrance of the fort, where he then sat cross-legged. In turn, Ga Eul reclined against the pillows at the back of the fort, the ones cushioned against the couch, and bent her legs at the knee, drawing them into herself to give him more room.
"You're sure you're not going to freak out again?" he asked, scrutinizing her.
"I only freaked out last time because I didn't know you could do that. I'm okay now. I promise," Ga Eul assured him.
"Well then...watch carefully," he commanded.
"Okay," Ga Eul said, smiling, and Rang smirked before transforming in a shimmer of gold.
"Hey, bedwetter!" Rang's brother called out to him from underneath the shade tree where he'd perched, fanning himself in his majestic red hanbok. "Focus," Lee Yeon admonished. "You have to see the animal in your mind before you can master its form."
It had taken quite a bit of nagging on Rang's part, but he'd finally convinced his brother to teach him shapeshifting. Now, he was starting to regret it. It was much harder than he'd anticipated and not nearly as fun as martial arts. At least, not so far. A fly buzzed in his ear, and he swatted it away, but it came right back. The sun was blistering, and he was sweating through his pink and blue hanbok as he stood in a patch of dirt a short length away and downhill from his brother's tree.
"I'm trying!" Rang called back. "It's not working!"
"You're not trying," his brother said calmly, in that all-knowing tone of his. "You're thinking about how hot it is outside."
"But it is hot outside!"
"You complain too much. Focus on the fox. Don't think about anything else. Clear your mind. Close your eyes, and picture what you want to look like," Lee Yeon urged. He'd agreed to teach Rang shapeshifting but only into animals, not humans; he'd said it could double as a lesson on the creatures in the forest, and to that end, he had made Rang study all the animals that lived in their forest until he'd memorized everything about their appearance and movements, which meant long hours of sitting still, Rang's least favorite thing to do.
If he was partly a nine-tailed fox, shouldn't he be able to snap his fingers and just...become something?
"You're still not concentrating," the older fox scolded.
"I…" Rang began, but it was true. He hadn't been concentrating.
Huffing, he closed his eyes as his brother had instructed and tried to picture the fox he'd been studying the day before. He tried to think of the fox and nothing but the fox, to block out the sun and the sweat and the sound of the creek's cool running water. When he felt like he'd pictured the fox well enough, he reached out to his powers in the way Lee Yeon had taught him, and his powers answered, starting with a tingle on his skin that made his hairs stand up and ending with a flash of light that rippled across Rang's body until suddenly he was on the ground on all fours. When he looked down, there were two furry black paws where his feet should have been.
Rang smiled, or rather, bared his teeth.
He'd done it! He'd shapeshifted!
Rang peered up at his brother to see if he looked proud of him, but Yeon was only staring at him with a scrutinizing frown.
Rang immediately changed back, tumbling onto the dirt as he lost his balance with the sudden shift.
"What's wrong? I did it!"
"The feet are wrong. You forgot the markings."
The feet?
Markings?
Was that really the point? Rang had just shifted into another living creature. It was awesome!
"But don't all foxes look basically the same?" Rang protested, getting up and dusting off his hanbok. "Who would know the difference?"
Lee Yeon raised his eyebrows, unimpressed.
"No two creatures are the same," he replied knowledgeably. "Not humans. Not foxes. You shifted into a fox but not the correct fox. The fox I told you to memorize had reddish streaks on his paws. Any nine-tailed fox can shift into a vague someone. A powerful fox know how to shift into someone specific, and to do that you have to be able to memorize details. Now, again." Lee Yeon waved his fan, motioning for Rang to continue, and bit into an apple.
Rang groaned up at the sun.
He was never going to get this.
When his transition finished, Rang landed on all fours in front of Ga Eul, a red fox with a luxuriously thick coat and distinctive black and white markings on his face, tail, and paws. For the purposes of outshining the fox on Ga Eul's lap, he made his face extra fluffy, its features soft and endearing in a way that humans found appealing.
A gasp of awe slipped from Ga Eul's lips, rewarding his efforts; she smiled and clapped, a delighted audience, and he beamed with pride and crept closer to her, relieved when she didn't flinch away. In fact, she petted his head when he drew close enough, and he shut his eyes and curled up in her lap so she could access his whole body. He was rewarded again when she stroked down the length of him, from his nose to his tail, and oohed and aahed over the softness of his fur. Meanwhile, that stupid stuffed fox was cast off to the side, forgotten. Rang stuck his tongue out at it.
"Is this how you really look?" Ga Eul asked. "I mean...in fox form?" Her fingers plunged deep into his fur, the tips ghosting over his skin, and he shivered as she brushed through his tail.
He wanted to stay there a while longer—all his senses were heightened in this form—but he couldn't answer Ga Eul's question unless he changed back, so reluctantly, he got up and sat back down across from her. In an instant, he was himself again, cross-legged on their makeshift bed.
"Unlike most foxes, I was born a human," Rang answered. "This is how I really look."
"Oh." Ga Eul's eyes lit up with understanding. "That makes sense," she said, and Rang was glad she accepted that answer. It was a partial truth. His first form had been human, of course. That was how he had been born. But he did have nine tails, along with his sharp teeth and claws. He'd hardly ever shown them to a human, though. Oh, sure, his claws every so often when he wanted to strike terror into someone, but his tails? Maybe once or twice. He couldn't remember what the circumstances were.
For some reason, he didn't feel ready to show them to Ga Eul now, even though he'd already shown her his claws once when she'd asked, even though she was looking at him purely with curiosity, without an ounce of fear; oddly, that made him feel more uneasy. Her calm acceptance of the fox part of him was a forbidden, foreign sensation, one he wanted to keep at bay until he figured out what to do with it. Until he figured out what exactly it meant and how far it extended. Until he knew it wouldn't one day disappear.
"But you said you have fur," Ga Eul announced, frowning, and Rang's hair stood on end. "And if you're a nine-tailed fox, shouldn't you have nine tails? Even if you were born a human?"
Ah, of course she would choose now to start being clever.
"I already told you that you can't see my fur," Rang insisted. "The tails are hidden. They're part of the spirit world. Only other supernatural beings can look at them." Another partial truth. They were currently concealed from the human eye, but if Ga Eul was a fox she would have noticed his nine tails glowing behind him. It was a lie that he couldn't make them visible to her, though. He could if he wanted to.
If he wanted to.
The truth was, a tiny part of him did want to show her his tails, but most of him didn't. And how could he explain that to Ga Eul when he couldn't explain it to himself?
"Oh." Ga Eul looked disappointed, and suddenly Rang hated lying to her. "But in the folktales…" she began, then trailed off. "It's okay. I would have liked to see them, but I understand. Can you turn into something other than a fox? Ooh, can you turn into a butterfly?" Her face lit up with her own suggestion.
"A butterfly is easy," Rang bragged, glad to be moving on from the subject of his tails. He disappeared into a dusting of gold glitter and emerged high above Ga Eul's head, fluttering just below the fake butterflies on their fort ceiling—a blue butterfly with black edges. Landing on Ga Eul's finger, he let her lift him up to her eye level. It was startling to see her looming so large before him, so that she completely filled his frame of vision, but he didn't mind it. Not when she grinned and said, "That's so cool! Can you change colors?"
Change colors? Pfft. Even a baby fox could do so.
"Hyung! Watch this!" Rang yelled as he took off running through the meadow. One second he was a deer, then a fox, then a falcon swooping up from the grass. He weaved a celebratory pattern through the air, swerving from side to side. Shapeshifting had been hard to learn at first, but now that he'd gotten used to it, it was easy to move from creature to creature.
"Be careful! If you do that too often, you're going to be sick," Lee Yeon warned, standing some distance away in his royal purple hanbok. His brother was always giving him warnings—'don't eat this; don't do that'—but Rang was fine. He'd practiced a ton of animals to show to Lee Yeon, and he wanted to do all of them.
The familiar tingle of his powers washed over Rang as he transitioned from blue to orange, then again as he went from orange to purple, then from purple to red. He changed the butterfly's pattern, then its shape, then its size until a fit of giggles overcame Ga Eul and he started to feel dizzy from the constant rearrangement of his body. Even so, he began changing faster and faster until the bright sparks of one transition barely vanished before the next transition began. He went through every type of butterfly he could remember because Ga Eul loved butterflies, and maybe he couldn't show her his tails, but he could show her those.
Rang was on the edge of the next to last butterfly that he wanted to show her when it happened. Suddenly, his vision blurred; he couldn't stay upright; he felt himself falling through the air; then the world fell dark.
When Rang came to, he was lying in the grass with his older brother hovering over him, a weary look on his face.
"What happened?" Rang tried to sit up, but his stomach lurched, wanting to expel his lunch. The heat didn't help his nausea, but at least his brother's formidable figure blocked out most of the sun.
"What happened is you did what I told you not to do, and now you are reaping the consequences," Lee Yeon informed him. "Ah, raising a child is so tiresome."
"What?" Rang brought his hand to his throbbing head. He didn't know how he'd ended up on the ground in his human form. The last thing he remembered was changing from a crane to a tiger.
"Shapeshifting is a delicate art," his brother offered sagely. "The body knows when you're abusing your power, and it stops you. Like that." He gestured to Rang's prone figure. "You passed out because you shifted too many times too quickly. Your body couldn't handle it, and there you are."
When Rang woke up, his head was on Ga Eul's lap, and she was bent over him with wide, frightened eyes.
"Rang?" She patted his cheek. "Rang, please wake up."
"I'm awake, I'm awake," he slurred.
"You passed out!" she exclaimed. "What happened?! Were you supposed to do that?!"
"Oh," Rang mumbled weakly. He forced his eyes to open wider and gave her a small smile. "I shifted too quickly. I'll be fine in a minute." He laughed, thinking of his brother's frustrated face. "I haven't done that since I was a kid."
"Shifting too quickly or passing out?" Ga Eul frowned as she helped him sit up.
"Both." He winced at a wave of dizziness and headache as he leaned back against the cushions next to her.
No nausea, at least. That was good. Passing out was better than throwing up in front of his girlfriend, he guessed. Though, obviously, he would have preferred to do neither.
"You scared me." Ga Eul pouted, and Rang forced back his dizziness so he could look at her properly.
"Awww, don't worry." Rang ruffled her hair and pinched her cheeks. "No one's ever died from shifting too many times," he informed Ga Eul as she gently pulled his hands away from her face.
She didn't look convinced.
"That we know of," she countered.
"You were liking the show. Admit it." He grinned and poked her cheek.
"Well...I was until you scared me to death."
Rang sighed and stretched.
"Humans are so dramatic over such small things," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I'm not dramatic," Ga Eul argued. "I really thought you wouldn't wake up."
Rang smiled, partly because he honestly hadn't been in any danger and partly because he liked her worrying over him. He liked that she would care if something happened to him.
"All right, all right. I'm sorry for scaring you, my little human." Rang patted Ga Eul's head, and she mock-glared.
"That's enough shapeshifting for today," she reprimanded. Rang made a little whine of complaint, but Ga Eul continued, "You're my pet fox. You have to do what I say. But if you like, you can visit me at school sometimes, and we can play that game you suggested."
"What game?"
"You know, where you show up as someone else during the week and at the end of the week, I have to guess who you were. I've been thinking about it, and it sounds kind of fun actually."
Had he suggested that? He didn't remember. But it did sound like fun, and he'd missed shapeshifting, and if Ga Eul didn't think it was a bad thing…
"Okay, let's play," he replied eagerly. "But I'll warn you, I've been doing this for a long time. I've fooled a lot of people, both humans and other supernatural beings."
"Oh...Then if I win, do I get a prize?" she asked, and he nearly laughed at the idea that she could really find him out.
"If you win," he agreed, "I'll give you whatever you ask for. We can even put it in a contract."
Ga Eul smiled, and Rang wondered what she would ask for if she won. Ah, well, he guessed he would never find out.
"If I win, what do I get?" Rang asked.
"You mean if I guess wrong and you successfully deceive me, what do you get?"
"Exactly."
Ga Eul stayed silent for a moment, seeming to consider it, then said, serenely, "You get the pleasure of stalking me." Her graceful smile dipped into a smirk, and the devilish expression did not match her angelic face. Rang liked the contrast a bit too much, along with the inside joke they now shared.
You get the pleasure of stalking me.
"Okay," he answered. "I guess that's fair."
