A/N: Although 'meeting the parents' is certainly nerve-wracking in any culture, there are some differences in the approach to it in Korean culture vs. (my) American culture.

Given that, I have researched and tried to get the details right as much as possible, but there's only so much you can learn from reading other people's accounts on the internet. There are probably still some things I've gotten wrong; please forgive any lingering inaccuracies, and let me know if there's anything I need to correct.

Okay, enough about that, enjoy :)

To Ga Eul's great shock, after months of avoiding the subject of her parents—despite spending many nights at their house—Rang picked her up from school one afternoon and announced that he and Ga Eul should have dinner with them 'as soon as possible.'

By this point, she'd told her mother about him. Just a few things—that she'd met someone through a good friend, that he was a few years older than her and financially quite successful, and that she was happy. She'd suggested that they could meet her mother first and worry about her father later, but he was adamant that he wanted to meet both, so there they were, parking in front of her parents' house on a chilly October evening.

Ga Eul shivered in her modest blue dress and too-thin white cardigan. To say she was terrified would be an understatement. She would have been nervous introducing anyone to her parents. She could introduce the most perfect man alive, and her father wouldn't be impressed. But Rang was in a whole other category. She had no idea what he would say or do if something rubbed him the wrong way.

Rang could behave properly, but would he? For a whole evening? While being scrutinized by a human who wouldn't like him by default?

What a recipe for disaster if there'd ever been one.

Her mother would be more understanding; they should have met her alone first, but there was nothing to do for it now. Her father had already agreed to meet with Rang, so they couldn't turn back.

Ga Eul's stomach roiled.

At least Rang looks the part, she thought as they walked up to her parents' front door in silence, keeping a respectful distance from one another. He'd bought a three-piece suit for the occasion in a conservative dark blue color and was even wearing a matching tie. His hair had been styled more neatly than the rakish look he preferred—it was smoothly combed to the sides—and he'd brought gifts for the occasion: beauty products for her mother and alcohol for her father, both expensive.

On second thought, she supposed Rang was as prepared as he'd ever be. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

What the hell was about to happen?

Be dishonest, be dishonest, be dishonest.

Rang's heart pounded in his ears as Ga Eul's mother opened the door, as he and Ga Eul greeted her and then took off their shoes in the entrance.

He'd viewed photos of Ga Eul's parents, of course, but he could see the similarities between her and her mother much clearer in person. There was no question where Ga Eul got her beauty from; her mother was a window through which he glimpsed future Ga Eul in twenty or so years, with shorter hair in her natural color. She had the same diminutive stature and delicate features, but most notably, the same glowing smile. In fact, her warmth and friendliness caught him off guard as she ushered him in; it was as if they'd met on some other occasion he didn't remember.

This didn't set him at ease—he had too much to be concerned about—but since he couldn't look at Ga Eul, he was glad for any glimmer of her.

"Let's all go into the living room," her mother announced. She led them down the hallway he'd walked frequently in his weekly visits to their home. Before, he'd only seen it shrouded in shadows when he snuck out of Ga Eul's bedroom to use the bathroom; now, the overhead lights illuminated a series of family photos placed along the walls. Pictures of Ga Eul and her parents from when she was a small child and, later, a student. He wanted to linger by his favorite one—five-year-old Ga Eul grinning as she shoved a massive strawberry into her mouth—but kept walking. As they passed Ga Eul's closed bedroom door, he resisted the urge to flee into it, then out through the window.

Her father waited for them in the living room, standing stiffly on one side of a low table. A slim man only slightly shorter than Rang, he must have been quite handsome in his youth, for he'd aged well, but his stern and studious gaze undercut the softer features of his face. He looked like a professor about to admonish an underperforming student. Not that Rang had been to university.

Be dishonest. Be so dishonest.

Rang kept his gaze low and gave a deep bow to both her parents once he'd reached the other side of the table.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you both. My name is Lee Rang. To thank you for meeting with me, I have here some small gifts."

Ga Eul's mother accepted his gifts with a smile. She placed the alcohol on the table in front of them, but when she saw the brand name on the box of cosmetics, she let out a gasp of delight.

"Oh, it's my favorite brand."

It's Ga Eul's favorite brand also, he almost blurted out, but smiled instead. He could just hear the wheels in her father's brain turning, wondering why Rang would know the type of cosmetics Ga Eul used.

"Ga Eul, you undersold how handsome he was," her mother mentioned.

"Oh." Ga Eul let out a nervous chuckle. "Not at all."

"Come. Let's sit down," her mother announced. "You too, Rang."

"Thank you, Eomeonim." Rang sat on the floor with the rest of them, glad he wouldn't be reduced to kneeling. Already, his forced politeness was rubbing his skin the wrong way, like an itchy sweater he couldn't wait to take off.

He was playing a role, he reminded himself. He had to see it all the way through.

This shouldn't be difficult. He liked playing roles. He liked deceiving people.

He thought he might hurl on the polished wood floor.

He felt completely naked. They were going to see right through him, he could feel it.

Rang bit the inside of his mouth.

No, they would see nothing. They would see only what he made them see. This had to work. It had to work because...he had to marry Ga Eul. There was no alternative.

Now that they were seated, and the gifts had been put away, the questions began: her mother asking, Rang answering, and her father listening.

Ga Eul listened too, fraught with tension. They'd discussed some of Rang's answers beforehand, of course. Answers to the most obvious questions. She knew he'd have to lie unless he wanted to reveal his true identity as a fox.

What she didn't know was how he'd respond to an unexpected question or to any sort of disapproval on her parents' part...particularly her father's. The fact that he'd been so calm and respectful up to this point signaled nothing. It almost made her more afraid. Rang was like a hand grenade, harmless until he suddenly exploded in a violent mess.

"So, Rang, how old are you?" her mother queried.

"Thirty-two years in Korean age," he answered solemnly.

"And do you have any siblings?"

"I have one brother. He's several years older than me."

"What about your parents? What do they do?"

"My parents are deceased. They died when I was still a teenager, so my brother raised me the rest of the time."

"Ah, I'm so sorry. That must have been hard on both you and your brother."

"Yes, I owe a lot to him."

There was a moment of silence; then her mother asked, "So what university did you attend?"

"I studied abroad. Australia."

"And what do you do for work?"

"I'm a portfolio manager at an investment firm." He gave their decided-upon answer. Then, from his breast pocket, Rang pulled out a business card Ga Eul had never seen before. She recognized the logo in the top left corner, however—it was for one of the largest investment management firms in the country. He slid the card across the table, and her father picked it up and inspected it, frowning.

"I've worked there for five years, and before that, I worked for a smaller company after I finished my degree abroad," Rang supplied.

Ga Eul stared at the business card when her father put it back on the table. There was a phone number on it. She wondered if someone who owed Rang a favor had paid it off by giving him a fake private office.

"Ga Eul tells me you met through a good friend of hers," her mother mentioned.

"Yes, the son of our mutual friend was a student in Ga Eul's class." Rang's breath hitched, as if he might say more, but he did not. Ga Eul imagined he must be bursting with things he wanted to say, but he really was trying. She could tell he wanted the meeting to go well. If he did explode eventually, she would deflect it somehow. She would make her parents accept him one way or the other.

"Omma, remember my friend Ki Yu Ri?" Ga Eul asked, determined to help him along.

"Oh, yes," her mother replied. "You showed me pictures of her."

"She was the friend. Let me show you a picture of her son, Soo-oh. He's so cute." Pulling out her phone, Ga Eul scrolled through until she found a heartwarming shot of Rang teaching Soo-oh to hit a baseball.

Grinning shamelessly, she offered up the photo: See, Omma? He's great with kids!

Predictably, her mother melted. A former teacher herself, she had a huge soft spot for anything involving children. Encouraged, Ga Eul flipped through several more photos. At least, she could give Rang a respite from the interview session.

Was Rang doing okay? He couldn't tell. Given that one of his main talents was studying human behavior, this was more than a little disturbing. Ga Eul's father hadn't said anything in the whole time they'd been sitting there.

Not that Rang craved any commentary from him. His stare was brutal enough. But he sensed neither approval nor disapproval. Nothing but cool calculation. Ga Eul's mother was much easier to dissect. She appeared satisfied with everything she'd heard so far.

"Rang, what do you like about our Ga Eul?" she asked, returning her daughter's phone to her.

Rang hadn't dared to glance at Ga Eul the whole time they'd been sitting there, but he was wearying of the interrogation and let his eyes dart to her for a split-second. Most of his other answers had been rehearsed, and he hadn't prepared for this question, but it was the easiest to answer out of all of them. No need for dishonesty.

"She takes good care of the people entrusted to her," he replied, emotion welling up in his throat. "Her students, for example. She's very kind...and bright. I can be skeptical of people and situations, but she always manages to see the good. The world is a happier place with her in it."

There was more he could say, much more, but he watched the length of his answer, as he'd been doing.

"Our Ga Eul has always had such a warm heart." Ga Eul's mother patted her daughter's hand. "I'm glad she's found someone who appreciates it."

Rang swallowed, a lump in his throat.

"Thank you, Eomeonim."

Sitting next to Rang, Ga Eul relaxed, just slightly. His answer reminded her of how sweet he could be. Maybe she'd been silly to be so worried. He was doing perfectly fine, much better than she—

"Let's go to the sauna this Saturday," her father announced. It was the first phrase he had uttered—and an awful one at that.

A sauna? Ga Eul's heart dropped into her gut.

There it was. The pin on the grenade. Hadn't Rang once described saunas as 'nine-tailed fox hell?'

Her father had no idea what he was asking, and she couldn't tell him. But she barely had time to be afraid of Rang's answer because he immediately replied, "Of course, Abeonim." She couldn't see his face, but his tone remained unchanged, as if Ga Eul's father had asked him about the weather.

The rest of the evening passed in the same way, with her father saying little and her mother peppering Rang with questions about his life. Three hours later, after a much-too-long dinner at her father's favorite restaurant, Ga Eul found herself on the sidewalk heading back to Rang's car, stunned by his behavior.

She just couldn't believe how...uneventful...the evening had been. How quiet and reserved Rang had been.

He'd spoken formally to her parents the entire time, politely answering their inquiries without a smidge of sarcasm or condescension. His manner had been so straightforward, in fact, that Ga Eul briefly wondered if it was really him and not some other fox he'd paid to impersonate him.

She needn't have bothered wondering that. As soon as goodbyes had been said, plans for the sauna had been made, and the two couples had parted ways, Rang tugged off his tie with the voracity of a man being strangled.

"Ah!" Ripping his shirt collar open, he pawed at his neck. "I forgot why I stopped wearing these things." He winced. "Humans are crazy. Don't you know this is a portable choking device?!" He shoved the tie at Ga Eul, and she accepted it in a daze. Gone was the perfect son-in-law, replaced by her ill-mannered fox.

How did he do that? Her parents had turned a corner—no, she'd only blinked—and his entire persona had shifted. His expressions, his mannerisms, his tone, even the way he was standing...

"What about belts?" Ga Eul pointed out, folding the tie into her purse. "You like belts."

"I don't wear belts around my neck, do I?" Rang tugged at his collar; she thought he might tear off his waistcoat as well. Despite the tension of the evening—or, perhaps, because of it—she laughed. She'd missed her fox's normal combativeness.

"You wear a choker around your neck. A literal choker."

The choker in question glinted on Rang's collarbone as he scowled. It had been hidden beneath his shirt and tie before.

"I was promised a treat if I behaved," he reminded her. "I will accept my treat now, little human."

Ga Eul blushed, remembering what she'd had in mind.

"It's not something you can have in the middle of the street," she reprimanded, glancing around at the pedestrians lit by the glow of restaurants and shops.

Rang continued frowning until understanding crept over his features. He snatched up her wrist and tugged her down the sidewalk.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go—"

"Wait, wait, wait." Ga Eul held her ground, forcing Rang to turn back.

"For what?" he huffed, dropping her arm.

"How did you act like that all evening?"

"What do you mean?" Rang screwed his face up. "I've been impersonating people for centuries. You think I can't manage to act like a good son-in-law for a couple of hours? You said I could be a decent person. You said it."

"I know, but...I've never seen you be that nice to any human, ever. You're not even that nice to me. How can you just do that all of a sudden?" Ga Eul laughed nervously, realizing she'd never watched Rang playing one of his roles before, the cat notwithstanding. His transformation was uncanny in its totality.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He'd played other people when he was stalking her, but...none of those people had looked like him. She hadn't even known it was him at the time.

Rang shifted on his feet. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and scrunched himself up like her question was the last one he wanted to answer.

Eventually, he said, "It's not 'how,' little human. It's 'why.'" His steady gaze warmed her whole body. She was used to him staring at her like that, but somehow, it carried more weight that usual. There was a meaning there, deeper than lust, deeper than ordinary love. She would never understand how the same eyes that made her feel helpless and unsteady could make her feel larger than the rest of the world.

It's not 'how.' It's 'why.'

Rang sighed and jerked his head.

"Come on. Let's go to the car. I want to show you something." He held out his hand, and she took it. She allowed him to rush her to the parking garage as he'd been doing before.

"I was going to give this to you later," he announced when they'd reached his white Volvo, "but I'm impatient anyway." He opened the passenger door, and she halted right behind him. The door hid them, partially, from the rest of the garage, and when he dug around in the glove box and pulled out a blue velvet ring box, Ga Eul gasped.

A honk sounded in the distance. Across the garage, a car door slammed. A few muffled voices echoed about the gray walls. But all of that faded away when Rang started speaking.

Smiling down at the box as he toyed with it, he confessed, "The truth is...I would live my whole terrible life over again if I knew at the end of it I would meet you. When I think about it that way…" Rang looked up at her, his eyes as clear and as genuine as she'd ever seen them. "I would do anything for you. If it was in my power, I would do it."

Ga Eul's eyes filled with tears. She had no idea what to say to that. Her words were inadequate in the face of such devotion.

In the end, she settled on humor.

"You would even wear a tie?"

"Of course." Rang smirked. "But only on Sundays."

"Why Sundays?"

"That's when we have dinner with your parents," he scolded, as if she should have known that.

If his obsession with her had left her breathless before, then his love for her left her speechless.

A tear fell to her cheek.

When she didn't say anything, he continued, glancing around the parking garage, "But we can do this later. Maybe you want flowers or fireworks or something." He started to put the ring box back in the car, but Ga Eul placed her hand on his arm.

"I don't need flowers or fireworks."

It was true. She never would have imagined being proposed to in a parking garage, but she wouldn't have imagined marrying a nine-tailed fox either.

And how could she need anything else when Rang had just given her the best present of all? He hadn't made her choose between him and her parents. He'd agreed to be part of her human family. It was no small concession. Not for him.

"Will you put it on me?" She held out her hand, crying in earnest now. A smile burst at the seams of her mouth. She was going to marry her pet fox. It was really happening!

Rang nodded, unable to contain his own smile. Ga Eul's happiness made the last few exhausting hours fade from his mind; her smile made everything worth it.

He opened the ring box quickly, revealing the engagement ring he'd picked out in Gangnam earlier that week. He'd opted for a less traditional rose gold band—he hoped the color would remind Ga Eul of his tails and the fox eye she loved so much—and the thin band was inlaid with tiny diamonds and topped with a small teardrop-shaped diamond. It was simple, but beautiful. Like his little human.

"Don't get too excited," he joked as he slid the ring onto her finger. "Don't forget I like watching humans make terrible decisions."

"Marrying you isn't a terrible decision!" Ga Eul slapped his arm. She looked like she might beat him up for even suggesting such a thing, and he laughed. Thought every human who married a fox ever.

"No," he amended, chuckling. "It isn't. I promise."

"This is going to be so much fun!" she declared, grabbing his hands. She jumped up and down on her heels. "This is going to be the most fun thing ever!"

The delight in Ga Eul's face reminded Rang of Soo-oh's excitement when someone gave him a new toy. Her whole heart was in her eyes, and he could have told her they were talking about marriage, not a video game, but he didn't.

Being married to her did sound like the most fun thing ever. Much more fun than watching humans make terrible, terrible decisions.