The Fox and the Marble
With those words, Shin-wol turned away as if the conversation were over. The moment his massive frame disappeared through the doorway, Yeo-won, who had been standing there in a daze, startled and hurried after him into the living room.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said. More importantly, this place is terribly cramped. All the objects seem scaled to fit you.”
“Just—normal, I mean—stop changing the subject! What does stabilization mean? Are you saying you’re unstable right now? Then what happens?”
Under the barrage of Yeo-won’s questions, Shin-wol, who had been prowling through the small two-room apartment, suddenly stopped in place. She, who had been following close behind, collided straight into his back.
He slowly turned his head and looked down at her.
“How noisy. You really are like a baby duckling.”
A duckling… He often used strange metaphors, and many of them were rude and unpleasant.
But knowing they came from pure, uncalculated comparison rather than deliberate insult, Yeo-won could only swallow a frustrated sigh.
Shin-wol settled onto the living room sofa as naturally as if it were his own home and patted the seat beside him twice.
That gesture was also rather irritating. It looked exactly like someone calling over a child.
I’m not a kid.
Still, she knew that if she refused, he would simply say nothing more. So she quietly sat down beside him without a word.
Only then did he speak.
“When I first met you, the marble was nearly in a vegetative state.”
The back of Shin-wol’s hand gently brushed up Yeo-won’s cheek until it reached her eye.
“Most likely because it hadn’t absorbed enough spiritual energy from inside your body.”
His fingers softly stroked her eyelid, then swept across her thick lashes. The ticklish sensation made Yeo-won scrunch one eye.
“The marble constantly craves fresh spiritual energy, yet it is only being drained. Instability is inevitable.”
Yeo-won listened with a surprisingly serious expression, which made him want to smile. To look at that face a little longer, he deliberately slowed his speech.
“Though the marble is a mass of yo-gi, it possesses a rudimentary sense of self, no different from a beast. Therefore, it can judge a certain level of danger.”
“……”
“The marble inside you seems to have determined that your body is in danger.”
Yeo-won’s face, which had been rigidly serious, turned deathly pale in an instant. She was quite intelligent; it seemed she had quickly grasped the true meaning behind his words.
“…Are you saying the marble is looking for a new host?”
The unfamiliar information made her head throb. Countless scenarios swelled and burst inside her mind until her stomach churned. Yet she couldn’t endure without asking.
“Then what’s going to happen from now on?”
He tilted his head, looking down at her with a meaningful smile.
“It will become a little more troublesome than it is now.”
“For example…?”
“You have already experienced it, have you not?”
His smile deepened, darker than before.
In the worst possible way.
“Congratulations. You have now become an open target for every ghost and spirit.”
Yeo-won’s eyes widened, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly, until she finally closed them in utter resignation.
She leaned her head against the sofa, covering her eyes with one hand, and stayed that way for a long time.
She desperately forced her mind to work so she wouldn’t be swept away by the waves of emotion crashing over her.
She had thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, yet it turned out there was a deeper bottom than she had imagined. It took her quite a while to accept that fact.
What am I supposed to do now?
The more she thought about it, the more only ominous futures came to mind. But she couldn’t simply sit still. If she stopped thinking even for a moment, she felt she would truly go insane.
“…If the marble is looking for a new host, isn’t this the perfect chance to transfer it to you, Shin-wol?”
Still covering her eyes, Yeo-won barely managed to speak.
“Unfortunately, it seems the marble does not consider me a suitable host. Absorbing spiritual energy little by little like this is the best option.”
At his arrogant reply, Yeo-won closed her mouth again. In the end, there was no solution.
What would happen from now on? He had called her a target—did that mean the same thing that happened with the eodukseoni would repeat itself?
The nightmare of that day replayed in her mind, and Yeo-won bit her lip hard.
I hate it.
She never wanted to go through something like that again.
Ever since that day, she had tried to act as if nothing had happened, but the incident had left a massive scar on her.
The memories that would likely resurface from time to time were probably similar to the mental trauma people commonly called PTSD.
Suddenly, her breath caught.
Squelch. Squelch. The sound of feet kicking up mud echoed in her ears.
Just as a metallic rasp began mixing into her exhales, Shin-wol’s hand lightly touched the side of her neck.
“Enough.”
At the calm, quiet voice, Yeo-won lowered the hand covering her eyes and looked at him.
“……”
“Do not let yourself be consumed by fear. That is precisely what the lesser spirits desire.”
He held his hand out toward her.
“Do not worry. I will always be by your side.”
Following the large hand upward, one saw broad shoulders, and above them, a face of such transcendent beauty that even an immortal sage would be enchanted.
Strangely, Shin-wol always reached out to her whenever she was struggling.
Even though she knew she shouldn’t, he kept offering her a place to lean on, so she couldn’t help wanting to depend on him.
When she took his hand, it felt as though all her worries would vanish in an instant.
His mesmerizingly beautiful appearance and sweet voice. The way he slipped naturally into the gaps of her heart, like ice cream melting on a midsummer day.
Yeo-won suddenly realized that all of this was simply their nature.
…To seduce humans.
The moment she reached out as if possessed, a noise-like ringing filled her ears.
“Ugh.”
She covered her ears and bent forward. Fortunately, the ringing didn’t last long. Instead, it was as if cold water had been poured over her hazy mind, sharpening her thoughts.
When she looked at Shin-wol again, he had withdrawn the hand he had offered and was staring into empty space with an unusually cold expression.
It almost looked like he had clicked his tongue, very faintly.
The chilling atmosphere was so alien that Yeo-won called out to him uneasily.
“Shin-wol?”
“Hm?”
When she spoke, he returned to his gentle expression as if nothing had happened. Then he softly stroked her hair.
It was clearly the same affectionate touch as always, yet it somehow felt subtly artificial.
*
After that, a revised email arrived from the client, and Yeo-won went into her room to work.
In the meantime, Shin-wol remained in the living room so quietly it was as if a mouse had died. If she didn’t consciously remind herself he was there, she would forget his presence entirely.
When she came out to the living room midway through her work, she saw him leaning back on the sofa with his eyes closed.
But he didn’t seem to be sleeping.
Unlike the completely disheveled state he had been in when truly asleep before, his posture was composed.
Worried he might be bored, she had turned on the TV for him before going back in, but at some point it had been turned off.
Maybe it had been too loud.
Cheong-sil would have liked it, though.
Seeing him simply killing time like that made her feel a little sorry, so Yeo-won finished her work as quickly as possible.
By the time she had sent the final email, the clock showed it was well past ten at night.
She had wanted to finish quickly, but it had taken longer than expected.
Rubbing her stiff shoulders and neck, she was wondering whether to eat something when her eyes fell on the calendar on her desk.
“Ah.”
She had momentarily forgotten because of Shin-wol’s presence.
She remembered that she had to go to Inwol early tomorrow morning. After a brief moment of thought, Yeo-won stood up and walked into the living room.
Even though she knew he wasn’t sleeping, she approached him on tiptoe.
Stopping in front of him, she carefully bent her knees and crouched down.
Beneath his long, dense lashes stretched a smooth, straight nose without the slightest flaw.
It really was a face she could never grow tired of no matter how many times she looked at it.
As she rested her chin in her hand, admiring his features, his tightly closed lips parted.
“Are you finished?”
His voice was crisp, as expected from someone who hadn’t been sleeping. Since he wasn’t human to begin with, she supposed his voice wouldn’t get hoarse anyway.
“Yes.”
At her answer, his closed eyes slowly opened. The jewel-like golden eyes hidden beneath his lids sparkled even more brightly, reflecting the fluorescent light.
“It took longer than I thought. Were you bored waiting?”
Without thinking, Yeo-won imagined his next reply.
She had expected something indifferent like “Not really” or “Not particularly,” but he looked down at her crouched before him and slowly tilted his head.
“I was.”
“Pardon?”
“Keeping you by my side and doing nothing at all… it is rather difficult.”
“……”
“Even though it has only been a few hours.”
He reached out and stroked her cheek. The touch felt almost like confirmation, and Yeo-won froze in place.
The somewhat pitiful look in his eyes made her heart lurch with sudden dizziness.
Even after three whole days had passed, he could act indifferent as if nothing had happened, yet after only a few hours he could wear the anguished face of someone reuniting after years apart.
His incomprehensible sense of time made her chest ache without her realizing it.
Yeo-won bit her lip once, then slowly opened her mouth.
“I… have something to tell you.”