A/N: Angst. Then more angst in the next chapter, but it's for a really good purpose, I promise!

Italics are a flashback; in case this is unclear, the flashbacks are not Rang's current thoughts; they're just flashbacks.

If you've been wondering about Rang and Ga Eul's connection in the past, it's coming up soon...

This chapter includes mind control.

When Rang returned from gathering firewood, Su Gyeong had an older boy gagged and tied to a tree in the center of their camp. He struggled futilely against her intricate rope work while she explained why she'd brought him there, alive.

"You should practice getting inside of humans' heads," she said, brandishing her knife at the human tauntingly. "I brought you a test subject. Looks to be about fifteen years old." She pouted. "Judging by his clothes, he probably won't make the best eating, but I thought he could be of some use to us."

At the mention of being eaten, the human struggled harder against his bonds; his protests, though, were muffled by the gag. He shot Rang a pleading look, which Rang ignored, averting his eyes to the ground.

"Quiet!" Su Gyeong flung her knife in the human's direction; it landed in the tree only a hair above his head, and Rang knew that had been deliberate. Su Gyeong always hit her targets.

She stalked up to the tree and wrenched the knife out of it. Dragging the knife's blunt edge along the boy's cheek, she cooed softly, "Quiet. You wouldn't want me to have to cut your lips off, would you?"

The boy shook his head; he went completely silent and still.

Su Gyeong patted his head.

"Good little human."

Straightening up, she glanced over at Rang, who had gone perfectly still too.

"To make it easier on you," she announced, "I'll go first. Watch and learn." She turned back to the human with a cruel smirk, and Rang thought this situation didn't bode well for either him or the human. Su Gyeong never did anything to 'make it easier' on Rang. She was enjoying this far too much.

"Little human, what should I make you do?" Su Gyeong circled the boy, tapping her knife to her nose. "Oh, I know!" She swiped something from the tree branch hanging over her captive, then held out her palm to show Rang a spider.

"It's easiest to work off a thought that's already in a human's mind," she explained. She bent down in front of the human, grinning. Presenting the spider to him, she looked him straight in the eye. "Your body...is covered...in spiders," she stated calmly, and if the boy had been frightened before, he now entered a state of madness. He wriggled and squirmed frantically, staring down at his body in terror and screaming around the gag. Laughing hysterically, Su Gyeong let this continue for a minute or so before she'd had enough of the noise and told him to 'snap out of it' and 'shut up.'

An immediate change swept over the boy's countenance, as though he'd been rescued from drowning, but the terror remained in his eyes. He panted heavily through his nose, his forehead glistening with sweat.

"All right, your turn," Su Gyeong said, slumping down on the ground and sighing as though bored. "Top that. And make it entertaining."

The school year had come and gone, and it was finally summer break.

Ga Eul was excited to have time for herself again, but mostly time for Rang. She'd been compiling a list of all the summer things they could do together. Rang probably wouldn't want to do most of them, but she figured if she presented him with a long enough list to begin with, she could bargain down to several things she wanted to do most. She was learning to think like a fox.

In the meantime, if they had nothing else to do, they could eat. They'd discovered that eating was their favorite activity to do together.

Well, their favorite public activity, anyway.

They both had hearty appetites and preferred traditional Korean foods over foreign delicacies. Sometimes they ordered so much food that their server thought other people were joining them. And they always ordered everything extra spicy. Rang said that his brother Lee Yeon hated spicy food, but since Rang was half-human, it had less of an adverse effect on him.

It was fun getting to eat with someone who enjoyed spicy food as much as she did. Eating the street food at night markets and trying new restaurants with Rang was often the highlight of her week. Although he dressed well and lived in an expensive apartment, he wasn't picky about where the restaurant was located or how upscale it was either, as long as the food was good. Plus, he'd eat gopchang with her all day; she couldn't imagine Yi Jeong ever stuffing his mouth with cow intestines so eagerly.

When they'd first started dating, they'd eaten more politely in front of each other, but by this point, they'd dropped all pretense and ate everything with gusto, as messily as they could—sometimes as though they were starved.

Speaking of dinner, Ga Eul's stomach growled as she swung around a paper shopping bag containing Rang's new suit jacket and her new blouse. She was waiting for Rang on the sidewalk outside of a luxury clothing store where, at Rang's insistence, she'd tried on a few things, then had allowed him to buy her one thing. Unfortunately, she'd accidentally left her phone in the changing room, so Rang had gone back to get it for her.

"Miss...Miss…"

Ga Eul turned towards the sound of a male voice right behind her.

"Yes?" Ga Eul replied, realizing the unfamiliar man was speaking to her. He was about her age if she had to guess, maybe a little older, and was wearing a black polo and white slacks.

"Miss, do you know the man you were just speaking with?" he asked anxiously, his eyes shifting with nervousness.

"Um…" Ga Eul trailed off, unsure if she should answer. She had no idea who the man was. Or why he was looking at her like he'd seen a ghost.

He seemed to take her silence as a 'no.'

"Whatever he says to you, don't answer," the stranger urged. "I'll tell you something. About two years ago, this man...he approached me at Moze Department Store. At the fountain. He asked me what I'd wished for there, and I said I'd wished to marry my girlfriend, but my parents didn't approve. So he said he would help me out, and the next day…" The man looked down at the ground in distress. "The next day, my parents were dead."

Ga Eul's eyes widened.

"Oh...Oh, no...I'm so sorry for your loss." She gave the man a sympathetic look.

He shook his head.

"The police said it was a bus accident, but the wounds on the bodies were strange. Like an animal had mauled them." He snapped his eyes back to Ga Eul's. "And I know it was him who did it because later I saw him at the funeral home. He was there...gloating…and then he grinned and told me at least I had gotten my wish. He's a total psychopath!" The man gestured wildly as he continued speaking, and Ga Eul thought if she hadn't known who Rang was already, she would have suspected the man to be out of his mind with grief. But gloating over his victims—that sounded like something Rang would do. And thanks to Yu Ri, she knew that visiting funeral homes was one of his favorite pastimes. She had no reason to doubt the man's story, sickening as it was to hear. Still, she didn't want him to be there when Rang came back out of the store, and she didn't want him to keep on thinking Rang was a murderer, even if he was.

Rang halted in his tracks when he saw the man who was talking to Ga Eul outside the store. He seemed like he was bothering her, and ordinarily Rang would have rushed to chase him away with an intimidating glare and, if that didn't work, a strong arm. However, he could hear what the man was saying through the glass, and suddenly a memory arose of the night he'd visited the funeral home after the bus accident he'd staged for Nam Ji Ah. That man's parents were two of the victims. Rang hadn't cared about them then, and he didn't care about them now, but Ga Eul would care because Ga Eul cared about everyone, whether they deserved her compassion or not. So Ga Eul would definitely care that Rang was responsible for their deaths, which the man was describing in gruesome detail.

Rang wanted to fly out the door and send the man running for his life. In the old days, he would have simply made Ga Eul forget she'd ever spoken to him. But he could only stand there, as though his feet had been glued to the floor. He'd been waiting for the inevitable event that would change Ga Eul's mind about him; maybe this was it.

At present, the man was attempting to convince Ga Eul of Rang's role in the crime with circumstantial evidence he'd collected in the past two years. He couldn't let it go, the fool.

Rang wanted to scoff. He wanted to tell the man that nothing he was doing would bring his parents back. That he was trying to take down a fox, basically a god, and that he ought to scurry back to wherever he came from before Rang decided to eat him for dinner too. Instead, Rang stayed rooted to the spot, Ga Eul's phone in hand.

No, no, no, this couldn't be happening. Months of work getting Ga Eul to trust him upended in one night by one nosey human.

On second thought, he would eat the man for dinner; he'd eat every damn organ in his body if he wanted, even if it made him sick. He'd tear him limb from limb. How dare he say any of that to—

"I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken," Ga Eul interrupted the man, cutting him off mid-sentence.

"The person you're accusing is my boyfriend. He's the sweetest man in the world, and he wouldn't hurt a fly. You've got the wrong person."

"What?! No, no! It was him, I swear! A witness said there was a seventh person on the bus—a man—but they never found a body."

"It's impossible that you spoke with my boyfriend two years ago. He was out of the country then," Ga Eul said firmly. "I'm sincerely sorry for your loss, but something else must have happened to your parents. Now please leave me alone, or I'm going to call for that policeman over there." She gestured to someone Rang couldn't see.

"But you don't know who you're dealing with!"

"What I don't know is who the hell you think you are calling my boyfriend a psychopath!" Ga Eul drew herself up. "What gives you the right to harass good people on the street?! Now I'm only going to tell you one more time to leave me alone."

Breaking free from the trance of Ga Eul's words, Rang quickly made his way out the door and was standing beside her before the two of them could blink.

The man immediately stepped back, blinking up at Rang in horror.

"Jagiya, is this man bothering you?" He wrapped an arm around Ga Eul's waist, drawing her to his side.

"Um." Ga Eul glanced up at Rang. "H-he was just leaving."

"Is that so?" Rang gave the man an unkind smile. "Well, then I'm certain he'll want to be on his way."

"You. I know who you are," the man spat, pointing at Rang.

"I remember you also. I do hope your family doesn't meet with any more accidents. That would be so tragic."

"I'm sure that won't be necessary," Ga Eul rushed out. "I mean, I'm sure they won't." She tugged at Rang's arm. "I'm hungry now. Let's go eat at that jjukkumi restaurant you were telling me about."

"In a moment. Jagiya, will you wait inside?" Rang stroked Ga Eul's hair. "This man and I have some unfinished business to discuss."

Ga Eul glanced between the two of them.

She shook her head and crossed her arms, crushing her shopping bag to her chest.

"I'm not going anywhere. If you have business to discuss, you can discuss it in front of me."

Rang's lips twitched in displeasure.

"Ga Eul," he began.

"Oh, honestly, we're not in the mafia. Just pretend I'm not here."

Rang shot her an irritated look, which she met with a clear, confident gaze that only made him more irritated. And impressed. She always impressed him when she stood up to him, and he loved it and hated it at the same time.

He'd never used mind tricks in front of her before for a reason, though. He'd thought that might frighten her more than anything else would, but now she was backing him into a corner.

Of course, he could just let the man go, but what kind of fox...what kind of boyfriend would he be if he did that?

Fine. He'd given her an out. If she saw something she didn't want to see, that was on her.

She'd already stood up for him once, anyway, though he wasn't sure why. He hoped against reason that she wouldn't mind what he did now.

The man was still standing there, a challenging, stubborn look in his eyes, but once Rang let his fox eye reveal itself, the man's resolve melted away like snow in summer heat. Eyes were windows to the mind, and where Rang found cracks in the man's windows, he shot through them like a winter breeze, twisting the man's own thoughts until they vanished into black smoke, until his memories turned to ash. Afterward, Rang spoke carefully, deliberately, in a calm and even tone.

"Your parents were killed in a bus crash. There were no survivors. You were never shown crime scene photos. You know nothing about the incident except these basic facts. You never saw me, and if you see me again, you won't recognize me. And if you see her"—he nodded to Ga Eul—"you're going to run terrified in the opposite direction without ever knowing why." He grinned and let go of his grip on the man's mind.

The man staggered back. He gave Rang a bewildered look, but when he turned to Ga Eul, his expression transitioned to sheer fright. He backed rapidly away from her, then took off like a spooked deer.

Rang's grin widened.

Run, human, run.

"You're not trying hard enough!" Su Gyeong scolded, rapping Rang on the head. "You have to really want it. Human minds are weak, but they're not completely non-existent. You have to fight to make them do what you want."

"I'm trying!" Rang protested. He'd been sitting in front of the captured human for what felt like forever, trying to make him do anything other than stare at him with those pathetic, pleading eyes. He couldn't think with the fear on the boy's face distracting him.

"Well, try harder!" Su Gyeong paced nearby. She was growing restless—and annoyed. And when Su Gyeong got annoyed, she lashed out at whatever, or whoever, was closest to her.

"Why don't you think about those villagers? The ones who picked on you?" she offered, and Rang flinched. He hadn't meant to tell her about that, but she'd gotten him drunk one night, and it had spilled out. Occasionally, she liked to tease him about it—how funny it was to imagine a fox running away in terror from a bunch of filthy, feeble humans.

Bending down, Su Gyeong said in his ear, "Picture yourself back in the village, and imagine what you would make them do."

What Rang would make them do.

He frowned.

He hadn't wanted them to do anything but leave him alone.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. One time, he'd dreamed that one of the boys who liked to taunt him peed himself in the middle of his rant, and everyone started laughing at him instead of picking on Rang.

Rang chuckled, remembering the dream. He raised his eyes to the captive's face, then stared straight into his eyes, trying his best to ignore the fear there. Or to see only the face of the other boy—the one who had taunted him—in his mind's eye.

Yes, that was it. If he could just imagine him as the other boy, maybe it would work.

Rang concentrated as hard as he could. He concentrated on the image in the dream. He concentrated on finding the crack in the boy's mind, the one Su Gyeong said should be there. He concentrated on the memory of the other boy's sneer and how in the dream his sneer had quickly disappeared, replaced by an expression of total humiliation, the moment a dark wet puddle formed on the ground beneath him.

Rang glanced down. A dark stain had appeared on the captive's pants.

The boy had peed himself.

Rang had done it.

He had really done it!

"Su Gyeong, look, look!" He pointed excitedly. "I did it! He peed himself!" Rang grinned, both proud and relieved. He'd thought the day would never end. He'd thought perhaps he was defective.

Unfortunately, Su Gyeong did not look impressed.

"Of course he peed himself!" She threw her hands up in exasperation. "He's been sitting there for hours! Honestly, what type of fox are you?!"

Rang dropped his head, abashed. Staring down at the dirt, his frustration with himself resurfaced. Su Gyeong was right. He was rather useless as a fox.

A few hours later, the human was still there. Night had fallen, and Rang and Su Gyeong had bunked down by the fire, but Rang couldn't sleep. He kept staring at the human, and the human kept staring back at him, taunting him with those pitiful human eyes.

When Rang couldn't take it anymore, he got up and approached the human stealthily until their faces were inches apart.

Su Gyeong was still asleep. He could cut the human loose. Just cut him loose and tell him to run far, far away.

That was what Lee Yeon would have done, probably.

Lee Yeon.

His brother wouldn't have liked this. None of it. But then, he wouldn't have liked anything Rang had done in the past year to survive.

And who was he kidding? If he cut the human loose, he definitely wouldn't survive another night. Su Gyeong would come after him. She'd carve his heart out while it was still beating. And then what type of fox would he be?

What type of fox was he?

One who ran. One who was beaten. One who was almost killed.

No.

Rang drew himself up. He looked the boy dead in the eyes, numbed himself to the emotion in his face, and focused only on finding the crack in his window. It was easier to find the second time.

In a way, this was for his brother. Humans had murdered him, and now, humans would pay.

And rather than be hunted by them too—rather than run and run his entire life—he was going to be strong and cunning and feared.

Su Gyeong wanted to see something impressive? Well, he'd show her. She didn't get to laugh at him too. She didn't get to tell him he wasn't worthy of being a fox.

Rang sneered the way he'd seen Su Gyeong sneer at her victims a hundred times. Then he spoke to the boy with only his mind, calmly and clearly:

'I'm going to untie you now, and after I do, you're going to hang yourself with the rope.'

Ga Eul hadn't said anything on the ride back to Rang's apartment, not even about the jjukkumi restaurant that they were supposed to have eaten at that evening, but did not. The most sound he heard out of her was her stomach growling on the elevator and a mumbled apology for that, and when Ga Eul wasn't saying anything, it made him nervous about what she wasn't saying.

When he'd first heard the man speaking, Rang had thought he would hate it if Ga Eul turned against him, if she looked at him in horror. Somehow, her defending him was worse. Her silence was worse. He'd rather her yell at him or spit on him or do something a normal person would do. He couldn't read her. He couldn't predict what she would do next. It was the ice skating incident all over again, except this time the stakes were higher.

As soon as they'd made it back to the apartment and had both taken their coats off, he snapped, "Aren't you going to ask me what I did to that guy just now?"

Ga Eul sat down on the couch and looked over at him, curling her feet underneath her.

"You don't tell me many things when I ask," she answered. "But it's mind control, isn't it? Yu Ri and Shin-joo told me you could do that. A long time ago." She paused, seeming to gather her thoughts. "It's...interesting...to see it in action."

Rang blinked.

Interesting?

"That's it? That's all you have to say?"

Ga Eul shrugged, twisting her hands together.

"What do you want me to say?"

I don't know. Scream at me. Hit me. Tell me I'm being a bad fox.

"You're really okay with what I did to that guy?"

"Well...I wouldn't say I'm okay with it, exactly, but—"

"Then why haven't you said anything?!" Rang cried.

Ga Eul raised her eyes at his outburst.

"I want you to feel comfortable around me. I don't want you to feel like you can't be yourself. Sometimes I feel like you hide things from me because you're afraid of my reaction. That's why I didn't want to go inside the store." Ga Eul gave him a small smile. "Plus, I figured you wouldn't do anything too bad as long as I was there."

"You want me to feel comfortable around you?" Rang repeated, trying to wrap his head around the absurd statement.

Ga Eul nodded affirmatively.

"Soulmates aren't just lovers, you know. We're supposed to be best friends. If we're best friends, that means we can tell each other secrets. It also means I'm always on your side, even if I think you're wrong."

Even if I think you're wrong.

Her words vaguely reminded him of a sword missing its fatal mark.

Rang studied her cautiously.

"Is that why you defended me?"

"You're my boyfriend. Of course, I defended you." Ga Eul shifted nervously. She patted the spot next to her on the couch. "Don't you want to sit down?"

Rang eyed the cushion next to her. He didn't sit.

"But doesn't it bother you?" he persisted. "What the man said about his parents."

"Of course, it bothers me, but—"

"And the other people on the bus. What I did to them. That doesn't bother you?"

"Of course! But I don't understand why you're so worked up about it."

"Because you should be worked up about it! Because you're human, and you shouldn't want to be best friends with a fox who...You're right. I would have done something worse if you weren't there," he said, trying to provoke her. "You ruined it."

"Okay." Ga Eul spread her hands. "What do you want me to say to that, Rang? I don't get what we're doing here. Why are you so mad at me for taking your side?"

"Because there's something you're not telling me. You're lying again."

"Lying about what?!"

"You're upset with me, but you won't say it."

Ga Eul's expression shifted.

"Aha! See! You are!"

"All right, fine, I am upset with you!" Ga Eul burst out, jumping to her feet.

Rang grinned, his blood simmering. Finally, they were getting somewhere.

"What's upsetting you, little human? Too much death on public transportation?"

"I don't care about the people on the bus, Rang. What I do care about is that I hardly know anything about your past life except what I hear from other people. Strangers on the street know more about you than I do!" She pointed to herself. "How is that possible?!"

Rang blinked, taken aback. That...was not what he'd been expecting.

"Well, excuse me for not telling you everything I've ever done in my six hundred years of being alive." He sneered.

"You don't have to tell me everything, but you don't tell me anything. Either you say you don't remember or you change the subject or you joke about whatever I asked you. When you told me to go in the store, it felt like you were hiding something else from me on purpose. You don't have to hide that you can control people's minds. I've known that for months, not that you've told me. I know you can't tell me everything you ever did in your life, but I don't even know things that Yu Ri knows. Or Nam Ji Ah. Every time I find out something new from them, I feel like you don't trust me with information at all." Ga Eul crossed her arms, looking utterly pissed off, and as this was the first complaint she'd made about the issue, Rang got pissed off as well. How the hell was he supposed to know she felt that way?

"If you've been upset for months, why haven't you said so?"

At that, Ga Eul appeared flustered.

"I thought you'd get better about it. I thought you just needed time."

"Time?" Rang laughed. "I've had six hundred years of time. You think I'm going to change in a few months?"

"Well…"

"You still think I'm going to change for you," he accused. "I didn't change for my brother. Why would I change for you?"

"I don't want you to change! I just want you to talk to me! I want you to tell me about yourself!" Ga Eul pleaded, tears forming in her eyes.

Rang refused to be swayed by them.

"Oh? Should I give you a detailed description of each crime scene? Would you like to know how to cleanly extract organs? Should I give you a hands-on tutorial?"

Ga Eul crossed her arms and stuck out her chin.

"If that's what you want to show me, then go ahead."

"Maybe I will."

"Good."

"I'm going to drag someone off the street right now. Don't go away." Rang marched out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

By the time he got to the sidewalk outside his complex, he was fuming. How dare she call his bluff. Well, he would show her.

He was ready to end this. He couldn't take anymore of the uncertainty. He just got worse and worse off the more time he spent with Ga Eul. He really hadn't thought they would last this long, and the longer they lasted, the more worried he got that the end was surely near. Well, he would make sure that the end was near. He would...

"Hey, you." He latched onto the arm of the next unaccompanied man that passed by and told the man to follow him. The human did so obediently, calmly getting into the elevator with Rang, then entering his apartment.

Ga Eul's eyes widened when she saw the human guest. She probably hadn't expected Rang to actually bring someone back.

Rang smiled at her as he announced, "This man has so graciously agreed to be part of the demonstration."

"Rang…" Ga Eul paled.

Ignoring her, Rang turned to the stranger, his fox eye leveled at the man's human ones.

"Take off your shirt," he said.

"Don't take off your shirt," Ga Eul countered, approaching the human.

Rang scoffed.

"You think he's going to take orders from you?" He nodded at the human's hands, which were frantically unbuttoning his dress shirt.

"You're going to take orders from me," Ga Eul said, facing Rang fully. "Make him stop, and let him go home."

"Not a chance."

"You've made your point! I don't want to see a live dissection, okay? I admit it. Just let him go."

Rang scowled at her. He would never understand why she felt she could order him around. How dare she upend his life the way she had. How dare she tell him what to do with his victims. How dare she defend him. How dare she. How dare she.

He could order her around just as easily if he wanted to. If he wanted to.

They stared at each other for an eternity, Ga Eul's human eyes nearly matching Rang's glowing fox eye in their intensity. And he knew that Ga Eul couldn't give him orders, not really, but for some reason, he kept hearing her voice playing over and over in his mind: let him go, just let him go.

Fuck.

"Leave," he snapped at the bare-chested man. "And go about whatever you were doing when I found you."

Ga Eul let out a breath.

"It's okay." She patted the man's arm and gave him a reassuring smile. "Let me show you to the door."

Rang's breath was harsh in his ears as Ga Eul guided the man away. Staring at a wisp of Ga Eul's hair on the hardwood floor, he heard the front door open and shut.

What was wrong with him? What was happening to him?!

He couldn't be a proper fox anymore. He couldn't make Ga Eul go away. He'd just have to wait for her to leave one day, and that was torturous.

"What is wrong with you?!" Ga Eul slapped his arm when she returned. "He must have been scared to death!"

Rang stared at her, wide-eyed. How dare she scold him.

"Did he look scared to you? He would have died smiling." He offered her a vicious grin, but Ga Eul only looked him dead in the eyes, unperturbed.

"I see. And that would accomplish what, exactly?" she asked, with that self-righteous indignation he ordinarily found irritating and now found repulsive.

Accomplish? What would that accomplish? Rang decided to answer honestly. He was done playing games.

"Because finally, you would have to admit you don't like everything I do. That, in fact, you hate what I do. You hate what I am."

"That's...Of course, I don't like everything you do! You don't like everything I do either! It doesn't mean we hate each other!"

"But if I don't like something, I say it. If you don't like something, you pretend it's fine. You think I don't trust you? You're right. Why the hell should I trust you? You say I don't tell you things, but you don't tell me everything either. I never know what you're thinking! Why do you have to be so fucking accommodating all the damn time?! Why can't you just say exactly what you want from me?! You know, I wonder things too. Does Ga Eul want to get married one day? Does Ga Eul want to have kids? Does Ga Eul want to date someone she can introduce to her parents? Or someone who has an actual job? Am I just a stop on Ga Eul's way to wherever Ga Eul is going? Is Ga Eul dating me just because I make her feel good? When will Ga Eul stop wasting her time with me? When will she find out the one thing I did that will make her hate me forever? One day, you're going to find out. And when you do, you won't even tell me. Because that's what you do. You lie. Just like every other human."

Ga Eul paled; she didn't reply, just stared at him as though she couldn't believe what he'd said.

Satisfied that he'd shut her up, he marched over to the refrigerator and took out three bottles of beer.

"I'm done with entertaining liars for tonight," he said, striding past her on his way to his bedroom. "Stay or go, I don't care. Just don't do anything on my account."

"Rang…" He heard her call his name faintly just before he shut the door.

Either you want to be with the version of me you've made up in your head, or you want to be with me. You can't have both.

I can be your pet fox, but I can't be a good fox. Either you can live with that, or you can't.

Rang's words from several months before played over and over in Ga Eul's mind as she sat on the floor of the living room, her back to the couch.

It was odd. Before, when Rang had told her he'd killed people, it had always struck her as a distant thing. Like something that had happened a long time ago, in another life.

Even when he'd admitted he'd tried to kill his sister-in-law...well, he hadn't actually killed her, had he? Nam Ji Ah was very alive. Ga Eul had talked to her only last week.

In light of that, the man who had approached her that evening had sent a shock through her system, but what had surprised her more was her reaction the longer he kept spewing accusations against Rang.

Her initial feeling had been one of sympathy, of course, but the moment he'd called Rang a psychopath, she'd wanted to punch him in the face.

She hadn't been able to answer Rang before, when he'd asked her if she wanted to be with him knowing he'd always be a bad fox.

She had her answer now.

That realization was a lot to take in, so she'd just sat with her thoughts as Rang drove them back to the apartment earlier, turning down one dark street, then another.

She hadn't thought he would misread her silence so horribly.

At least he'd been honest with her. Finally. He'd told her flat out he didn't trust her, which pierced her through the heart, but she couldn't deny that some of his reasons for it made sense.

She supposed, even if she wasn't every other human, she couldn't blame him for thinking she would react like every other human would to hearing firsthand how he'd murdered someone's parents.

He'd said he never knew what she was thinking, that she was expecting him to, perhaps magically, change for her. On some level, she had to admit that was true.

Her dinner with Yu Ri had taken place a month ago, and she still hadn't managed to mention any of the things she'd learned about him. She hadn't told him the full extent of how much it bothered her each time she found out how little she knew him.

Maybe he wasn't saying anything, but she wasn't saying anything either. And yet, she expected him to change, just like she'd expected Yi Jeong to change.

Ga Eul had always blamed Yi Jeong for how their relationship had ended. She'd always blamed him for stringing her along, but had she ever demanded anything else from him? She'd never told him how much his indecisiveness bothered her. She'd never asked for a straight answer as to whether she was—or could be or would be—his girlfriend. She'd just hoped—blindly believed—he would get there on his own eventually. But could she really be mad at Yi Jeong for not giving her something she'd never asked him for? She hadn't wanted to ask; she'd only wanted to maintain her stupid hope, even if, deep down, she knew she might be wasting her time.

For four years, she'd waited. Rang would never have waited like she had done. Rang would have demanded an answer, even if the answer wasn't something he wanted to hear.

Ga Eul smiled despite her tears.

She wished she could be that brave all the time. Instead, she was repeating her mistake, in a way that made Rang uncomfortable and afraid that she'd leave him. Maybe he had some trust issues, but she hadn't been completely forthcoming.

She hadn't yet told him that she loved him. She certainly hadn't mentioned marriage.

Did she want to marry Rang one day? She didn't like to think of her life without him. She supposed so, though truthfully, she hadn't thought Rang would think much about marriage. He was clingy, but she could tell he valued his independence, and he didn't care for human customs. She'd assumed she would be the one to bring the subject up if the time ever came for that. But obviously he did think about it a great deal, or he wouldn't have said what he'd said. He'd even mentioned meeting her parents, and that had shocked her.

With her stomach in knots and her heart in her throat, Ga Eul glanced towards the closed door of Rang's bedroom.

There were so many issues to be dealt with that she wasn't sure where to begin, only that one thing was for certain. Rang wouldn't want to listen to anything she had to say if he didn't trust her.

But how could she make him trust her if he wouldn't believe anything she said? Ga Eul had no idea. She only knew that the longer she stayed in the living room, the more certain it was that Rang would drink until he passed out, and then they'd have to deal with their problems in the morning, in addition to Rang's hangover.

Getting up, Ga Eul walked over to the door and rapped on it lightly. When there was no answer, she pushed it open. Thankfully, it was unlocked.

"Rang?" Ga Eul prompted, entering the room.

Sitting on the floor at the foot of his bed, he didn't acknowledge her presence, choosing instead to pick at the label on the empty glass bottle of beer he held in hands. His face was twisted into a hard scowl, and his entire body radiated the energy of a wounded animal.

His aura said, Touch me and die.

Or, I'm hurt, and I want to be alone.

Ga Eul sat down gingerly at the foot of the bed, a short distance from him. At first, she stayed quiet, assessing him, then trying to gather the right words to salvage the situation.

I love you. I want to be with you, she wanted to say.

Rang picked at the label. He picked and picked at it, as though it had offended him somehow.

How could she show him how much she loved him? How much she trusted him? She cast about for a solution, her gaze roaming over Rang's hunched figure, the bottle of beer, the black suit coat that he'd tossed into the corner of the room.

She wanted so much just to hug him, like maybe if she held him long enough she could make him believe she loved him no matter what he'd done to that stranger's parents, that she'd loved him even when he'd been threatening the man, when his lone fox eye had appeared, luminous and dangerous as fire, and when he'd…

Ga Eul jerked her head up. That was it. She had an idea.

"I'm sorry I didn't say much in the car," she began carefully. "I was just trying to digest what happened. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you before how much it bothers me that you don't tell me things. I was just scared of losing you, I guess. I didn't want…" Ga Eul paused, tears filling her eyes. "I thought if I told you it bothered me, and you didn't do anything about it, we might break up, and I didn't want to break up. I like being with you a lot...I love you." Her voice broke over those three words she'd been waiting to say at the right moment. The right moment being whenever she thought Rang might say them back.

She didn't know if he would say them back. She didn't know if her idea would work, but she had to try. If they broke up, it wouldn't be for a lack of her trying.

"I know you can't believe me right now, so I have an idea," she announced quietly, "Let's do a trust exercise. You can make me do something."

"What?" Rang glanced over at her for the first time since she'd sat down. The emotion in his eyes was unfathomable. Confusion? Distrust? Surprise?

"You can make me do something." Ga Eul stopped the hand that was picking at the label; she took it in both of her hands and squeezed it. She looked straight into his eyes. "With your mind."