Fox, An Ordinary Day?
In the end I was carried out of the room in Kang Subin’s arms, only to immediately wriggle free of her hands and dive under the sofa as if flinging myself there.
“Naru, why did you go back under there? It’s already past one in the morning—you should be sleeping.”
“Grrr!”
“If you said you’d forgive unnie earlier…”
“That’s one thing! I can’t trust you!”
“Hmm… what would it take for you to trust me?”
“That’s…”
I couldn’t answer Kang Subin’s question right away.
To be honest, even I didn’t know how I could come to trust her.
As I lay under the sofa tapping the floor with my tail and thinking it over, a brilliant idea came racing toward me.
I would make a promise she could never keep and force Kang Subin to leave first.
She would definitely go, “Eek! That’s a promise I can’t keep!” and run away.
Hehe, as expected—I’m a clever fox!
If you deliberately make a hard-to-keep promise, humans quickly get angry and show their scary true nature.
That’s why you must never trust people lightly.
…
Yerin is an exception.
Of course I still don’t fully trust her, but she saved me and even forgave my betrayal, so she’s on temporary hold.
I definitely don’t trust her completely.
…
Just a tiny bit…
About half as much as Boss.
While I was thinking that, she was still calling for me desperately from outside the sofa.
“Naruuuu, come out already.”
“No! Untrustworthy strange humans are dangerous!!”
“Just trust this unnie once.”
“Why do you keep asking me to trust you?”
“Because I want to get close to Naru.”
“Why??”
“Because Naru is cute?”
“Naru is not cute!! I’m a scary, cool fox!!”
“But I really do want to get close to Naru, you know?”
“Hmph, nonsense! Whether those words are true or not will be judged by a promise!”
“A promise?”
“Yeah. If you make a few promises, I’ll specially trust you about half of half of Boss’s level!”
“I don’t know what kind of standard that is, but okay! What promises do I need to make?”
“First one!”
“Ah, so it’s not just one promise.”
“Don’t hit me!!”
When I declared that boldly, Kang Subin blinked at me for a moment before opening her mouth.
“…That’s just common sense.”
“You attacked me…”
“That was really an accident, not on purpose, Naru!!”
“Hmm…”
As I looked at her with suspicious eyes, Kang Subin carefully asked a question.
“Has someone hit Naru before?”
“Yeah. Other people always hit me.”
At school, rumors about my parents had spread and I naturally became a target of bullying, but more than that, my parents had always hit me.
And the loan sharks demanding money, too.
Come to think of it, most of the people I’d met so far had hit me—clearly other people wanted to hit me.
So this promise would definitely be hard to keep.
“Naru, unnie will never… no matter what happens, hit you.”
“…Kyaeng?”
Her answer was so different from what I expected that I froze in shock.
I was sure she’d say, “I have to hit Naru, so that’s a hard promise to keep!” and run away, but why did she make the promise so easily? My brain short-circuited for a second.
Could she actually be someone I can trust?
…
No, I can’t decide yet.
I’m a very clever and careful fox!
Even a stone bridge must be tapped with your tail before you cross it.
“Second promise!”
“Yeah, tell me!”
“Don’t swear at me!!”
“Don’t tell me someone swore at Naru?”
“Yeah. My family always called me useless!”
Subin muttered softly, “Don’t tell me the ones who hit you were your parents too?” before continuing.
“…Don’t worry, Naru. Unnie and Yerin will never swear at you.”
“???”
She made this promise so easily too!!
But the last promise is absolutely… not easy…
…
…
…
A flash of my parents’ shouts brushed past me, and I closed my mouth.
Then I buried the last promise and slowly came out from under the sofa.
“You’re really going to keep the promises?”
“Of course.”
“Okay. Then I’ll trust you a little.”
“Yeah. Thanks for trusting me.”
When Kang Subin tried to hug me, I was so startled that I hopped back.
“Grrr! Don’t you dare touch this body so casually!”
“But unnie just wanted to give Naru a hug?”
“Hmph, I don’t need that! I’m already an adult fox!”
When the landslide happened, Yerin did hold me, but that was an emergency, so it couldn’t be helped.
Rumble—
“Kyaeng?!”
Just then, a clap of thunder from outside made me jump in surprise.
I glanced behind me—outside the window, rain was still pouring heavily, with flashing lightning.
“Did that scare you a lot, Naru?”
“W-what noise? I wasn’t scared at all?”
I tried my best to ignore my thumping heart and act nonchalant, but suddenly I felt a strange warmth.
“Really? Still, should unnie keep holding you?”
“Huh?”
At Subin’s words, I realized what the warmth I felt was—to my surprise, I was already nestled in Subin’s arms.
“Y-you sneaky! When did you pick me up!”
“I didn’t pick you up—when the thunder hit, Naru jumped right into my arms?”
“…Eh?”
Thinking about it, I did jump from the thunder.
Embarrassed that I had thrown myself into her arms, I immediately gave Subin the perfect excuse.
“Th-this isn’t being held—it’s a shield… yeah, I used you as a shield!”
“If it’s for Naru, unnie is fine being a shield.”
“You’re weird after all…”
She said it was fine even after being treated like a human shield—I was right not to trust her completely.
Just then, the door opened and Yerin came over looking somewhat tired.
“Haa, finally done…”
“Good work. So, did the explanation go well?”
“Naru appearing on the stream was unexpected, but thanks to that it got resolved quickly. Of course, other controversies came up…”
“Then the Association will react right away.”
“Yeah. It’s going to be a war for a while.”
“War? Who are you fighting?”
“Yeah. Some very irresponsible people.”
As expected of the boss of this area, she seemed to be fighting a lot more than she looked.
While I was thinking that, Yerin saw me in Subin’s arms, chuckled, and sat on the floor leaning against the sofa.
I didn’t know why she sat on the floor leaning instead of on the soft sofa, but that didn’t matter right now.
“But you two got pretty close in that short time.”
“Yeah, we’re super close now!”
“No way!!”
When Subin held me and rubbed her face against me in a way that gave me goosebumps, I twisted my whole body with all my strength to escape her arms.
“Aww…”
She looked at me as if disappointed, but I firmly decided that Subin was still someone I needed to be wary of.
Rumble—
“Kyaeng?!”
Thunder struck again, and startled, I instinctively dashed and went back under the sofa.
“I thought the rain was dying down, but it’s pouring again.”
When Yerin spoke while looking out the window, I suddenly thought of Boss, who was still on the mountain.
There had been a landslide—I was worried if Boss was okay, so I poked just my face out from under the sofa and said,
“Boss!! I’m worried about Boss!!”
“Don’t worry, Naru. Boss is sleeping peacefully.”
“How would Yerin know that?”
At my question, Yerin held up one finger and brought it in front of my eyes.
“Watch carefully.”
A purple light gathered at the tip of Yerin’s finger, gradually taking shape into a single butterfly that fluttered and spun before my eyes.
“A butterfly?”
“It’s my ability. Not a real butterfly—one made of mana.”
Flutter. Flutter.
Ah, this sensation.
I’ve felt it once before.
When I first saw Yerin I got a strange feeling and hid on instinct, but now I know for sure.
What I sensed was mana.
What a curious sensation…
It was different from the five senses I always took for granted, yet this hard-to-explain sense felt so clear that it was fascinating.
“With the butterflies I make with my ability, I can scout or see the surroundings. And before bringing Naru here, I left one butterfly with Boss.”
“Boss is safe?”
“Yeah. He’s leisurely yawning and watching the rain?”
“As expected of Boss!”
Knowing Boss was safe, I felt relieved and came out from under the sofa to start running around.
Then my gaze was stolen by the butterfly still flying around me, and the hunting instinct that had been sleeping inside me began to stir.
I naturally lowered my stance, raised my hips, and got into position.
Flutter. Flutter.
How dare you fly around defenselessly in front of this Naru-nim… that carelessness will be your final moment.
I raised my concentration, matched the butterfly’s movements, and twitched my lower body left and right, finishing my preparations to leap.
And the moment the butterfly’s movements slowed, I sprang up in an instant and snatched the butterfly!
“Kyaeng?!”
But the moment the butterfly entered my mouth, it turned into purple particles and vanished, and I tumbled across the floor before flopping onto my back.
Yerin must have caught me, so it didn’t hurt, but the emptiness of losing my prey washed over me.
“Sorry, Naru. My butterflies are weak to impact, so they disappear quickly.”
“How could this be…”
Feeling like I’d lost my prey right in front of me, I lay sprawled out and smacked the floor with my dissatisfied tail. Yerin stroked my head as she spoke.
“Naru, let’s just sleep for today. It’s already almost two.”
“No! Night is hunting time for foxes!”
The moment I declared I would hunt to soothe the emptiness of losing my prey once, Subin scooped me up.
“Grrr, put me down!”
“Unnie?”
“Hehe, leave it to me. I used to put our Injeolmi to sleep really well.”
“No, Naru is a person, you know?”
“Don’t worry!”
Subin carried me straight to the room with the bed and gently set me down.
“…?”
Stroke stroke.
The moment she set me down, I was going to show the scariness of a fox, but for some reason my body grew heavier and harder to move.
“Hehe, babies usually fall asleep the moment their head touches the ground.”
“Isn’t that for humans?”
The two of them seemed to be saying something, but my… consciousness… was… zzz…