An Older Sister's Youth (1)
Listening to the anchor's even voice drift from the living room TV, I leaned back against the sofa.
Well... at least they weren't trotting out any of that useless nonsense about a beautiful huntswoman, or plastering my name all over the broadcast. That was a relief.
Given how much time had passed before the story even made the news, it seemed the environmental office or the police had either sat on the coverage or double-checked every last fact before letting it out. Or maybe a piddling little variant incident like this just wasn't news anymore, and they'd shoved it to the back of the lineup.
Either way, I was happy. Meant I wouldn't have a bunch of random eyes on me for no good reason.
The long, miserable rainy season had finally broken, and we had stepped square into the murderous heart of summer. The world's attention had already moved on from some punk raccoon. Everyone's eyes were locked on the vacation sitting right around the corner.
Monsters could raise hell whenever they got bored. Variants could swagger around the neighborhood like two-bit thugs. Vacation, it seemed, was still sacred. Especially for the demi-humans who'd washed up here from all over for one reason or another — this brief stretch of holiday must have felt even more precious to them. It was a comma in the long, awkward sentence of city life. A chance to come up for air.
Which was probably why even sleepy little Dohwang-ri had started filling up with outsiders. Cars with unfamiliar plates were squeezing their way down the village's narrow roads, and the old folks on the wooden platforms and at the village hall had stopped talking about fieldwork and everyday gossip. Now it was all about whose guesthouse was booked solid.
The village itself transformed dramatically this time of year. Watching the old men who normally sat around the village hall nursing bowls of makgeolli turn into proper guesthouse proprietors in crisp, clean shirts was enough to make anyone laugh.
Nureongi and Ppoppi, who'd been bored stiff without any kids their own age in Dohwang-ri, were out from morning onward playing with the beastfolk children who'd come to the guesthouses with their families. Bang-ul would bob along after them in her pocket, or go swimming at the beach. The kids were enjoying their summer vacation in their own way.
So what did all of this mean for me?
It meant I had more quiet, peaceful time to myself.
And how was I going to enjoy that time alone...? First I needed to give the guns a thorough once-over. Then I should drop by the shooting range so I didn't lose my edge. And while the kids were out, I needed to catch up on the cleaning...
Wait.
What was this.
This was just me saying I was going to do the housework I'd been putting off.
"Haa... at this rate I'm just a mom."
A sigh slipped out on its own.
"Even an older sister has a youth, you know."
Older sister?
I startled myself with the words that had popped out unbidden. I guess I really did just think of myself as a woman now.
Fine. Older sister, dad, mom — whatever. Doing something I'd wanted to try back in that youth I'd forgotten about... that didn't sound so bad.
...But.
Do what?
It was ridiculous. I'd sat here spinning every idle thought under the sun about youth this and youth that, and I'd never once actually thought about what I wanted to do.
"Ugh... living like a mom is probably just easier."
I'd given up and was about to at least run the vacuum when a knock came at the front door.
Knock, knock.
What now? Has the environmental office guy come by after all this time to drag me out for a drink?
I opened the front door still clutching the vacuum from the living room. What I found in front of me were a pair of familiar fox ears, twitching in the sunlight.
A tourist who'd gotten the address wrong? That was just me running from reality.
Hwaryeong... Miss Jeong had shown up out of nowhere.
"Uh... Miss..."
Before I could even finish, her lush tail flicked across my face. The sensation was impossibly soft... and somehow, it stung.
"You going to keep talking to me like I'm some coffee-shop girl?"
"Uh... sorry, Hwaryeong. What's going on?"
"I'm not allowed to take a vacation? And here you are, running a vacuum."
She snapped it at me, then walked right into the house without waiting for an answer. I stared after Miss Jeong as she made herself at home, still a little dazed. She really did look like she'd come to rest — dressed in comfortable summer clothes.
...But why my house, of all places...?
I kept sneaking glances at her even as I ran the vacuum. She was looking around the place like she owned it. The room she'd stayed in before was Nureongi and Ppoppi's now, and in the middle of the living room, Bang-ul's bed-slash-tank was quietly circulating water through its filtration system.
A lot had changed... though maybe to her eyes, nothing much had.
The vacuum hummed as it sucked up a thick coat of Nureongi and Ppoppi's fur. At least I'd done a proper job of it. That felt pretty good.
When I finished, she was already sitting elegantly on the sofa, gazing at Bang-ul's tank with genuine interest.
"So this is Eunseo's tank?"
"Yeah. They said there's no such thing as a dedicated aquatic-folk bed, so I jury-rigged a circulation system onto it somehow."
"Heh~ You've always had way too much heart for your own good."
"They're kids."
"And that's why you turned my tail into a bald mountain?"
"...I'll call it an expensive lesson."
"Then how about paying the tuition?"
"Uh...?"
She was waving something in front of my face. A gleaming car key. It looked a lot prettier and more sophisticated than the key to my beat-up old truck.
"You drove here?"
"What, you think I walked all this way? Just come with me."
"Uh... what about the kids?"
"I already called them."
Typical. Plotting among themselves and leaving me out of it was still infuriating... but still. It really, truly felt like the first time in ages I was going out without the kids.
When we stepped out into the yard, a gleaming white car was parked right next to my battered old truck. It wasn't the latest model, but she'd clearly taken good care of it. Catching the midday sun dead-on, it shone almost painfully bright.
"Want me to drive?"
"And trust you with what, exactly? Just knock the dirt off your shoes and get in."
How many years had it been since I'd sat in the passenger seat for something as ordinary as going out? My heart started pounding before I could stop it.
I did my best to look casual, knocked the dirt off my soles, and climbed into the passenger seat. The interior was decorated in that cute, homey way that was so her. And because she was beastkin, the driver's seat even had a carefully cut hole so her tail wouldn't be uncomfortable... money really did solve things.
"Looking that amazed just because you're a country bumpkin?"
"Yeah... pretty amazed. So where are we going?"
"Just to get some air. It's no fun going alone."
"That's true enough."
"If it were you, you'd get all flashy and drag the kids somewhere ridiculous."
"...How'd you know?"
"You run a business long enough, you learn. Guys that age are all like that around this time of year."
It was the kind of sharp insight you'd expect from a fox beastkin. And just like a fox beastkin, she still had that talent for digging a hole straight through a person's chest.
As Miss Jeong's car pulled away smoothly, I sank deep into the seatback without meaning to. It was such a spur-of-the-moment outing that I was still flustered, but going out alone with Miss Jeong — without the kids — after so long... my heart was pounding all on its own.
The view through the window of Miss Jeong's car was the same old Dohwang-ri scenery I always saw. But maybe because I was in the passenger seat instead of behind the wheel? Strangely, everything looked new. Everything caught my eye more than it should have.
Beastkin families walking along, laughing, holding their children's hands. Fishing boats drifting peacefully over the distant sea. Landscapes I would have just let slide past on any other day came into focus, sharp and vivid.
"What are you doing, eyes all round like a kid?"
"I don't know... maybe because it's been so long since I sat in the passenger seat?"
"Listen to you, sounding like some old man..."
"Even old men have a youth, you know."
"Ha. You realize how painfully cringey that sounds coming from you right now?"
"I'm still getting used to it, okay? I don't even blush anymore when someone calls me unni."
"Ah~ Is that so, un. ni.?"
Miss Jeong deliberately dragged out the word, teasing me with it, and I felt every hair on my body stand on end. It was that awkward.
"...I take that back."
"Good. A hunter's supposed to know when to quit, and quit fast."
"Ha. You know that actually wounds my pride? I've never failed a hunt in my life."
"Oh? Then if I drop you off here, you'll just track me down on your own?"
"...I'll just be quiet."
"Smart choice."
There was no winning a war of words with her. I shut my mouth and turned my gaze out the window.
Whether she planned to spend the whole day teasing me like this, or whether she had some other intention entirely... I couldn't tell. Strangely, though, I didn't mind.
No... I actually liked it.
The place we arrived at with Miss Jeong was a café perched on a cliff, quite a ways from Dohwang-ri. Judging by how many cars were parked, it was a pretty well-known spot around here.
"Guess that's what I get for circling the same backwater of Dohwang-ri... I've never even seen a place like this."
"It hasn't been open long. Our people opened it."
"Our people?"
"Foxes."
She answered shortly, then got out of the car first and walked inside.
A restaurant run by a fox beastkin, and now a café by the sea. Were all fox beastkin just good at business? The world really was wide, and full of things I didn't know.
The East Asian interior was very fox-beastkin. But the combination of coffee aroma and lavish Western-style desserts — a pairing that should have looked bizarre — came together perfectly thanks to the owner behind the counter. She was a beautiful fox beastkin, with a calm, mature air completely different from Miss Jeong's.
"Just loving this, aren't you?"
I was staring, completely lost in the sight, when Miss Jeong's voice cut in — along with a sharp, stabbing pain in my side.
"Kyaa!"
Not an old man's Ugh! — a scream much closer to a little girl's Kyaa! burst out of me.
At the sound, the café owner turned to look our way. Then she covered her mouth lightly and laughed, elegant as anything.
Damn it. Even her smile was... pretty.