The Second Bonding
She hadn't given much thought to where they should go for their outing, but the path climbing the hill behind the house was well tended.
"Want to try up there?"
"As thou wishest."
There was no one else around at this hour and in this place, so Arang had her fox ears and tail out in the open. And from the way that tail swayed gently from side to side, it seemed the spot looked fine to her as well.
"Then let's go."
Walking side by side, Hoeyeon suddenly asked,
"Is this pretty much the first time it's just the two of us?"
"The first, indeed."
Arang agreed at once.
"Never even once?"
"Not even once."
Arang answered just as promptly again. Hoeyeon seemed displeased that she hadn't been more certain; a faint sulkiness crept into her voice.
As they climbed the mountain path behind the house, Hoeyeon let her thoughts drift back to the very beginning of her acquaintance with Arang. The fox that had blocked the mountain road that day. Arang turned into a child. The fight with the white snake. Camping out. The hot spring that was a treasure of the Fox-kin. Escaping the capital after the battle with her master. Yujeong's place…
"Actually, there was one."
"A time when it was just the two of us? When was that?"
"After Gayul used up all her magic and passed out, until we met Yujeong."
"Thou knowest full well that is not what I meant. Art thou teasing this one?"
"Sorry…"
"This generous one shall forgive thee."
She said as much, but the sulkiness only deepened a little. It seemed best to soothe her mood.
"Can I touch your ears later?"
"…Hoeyeon. I have meant to say this for some time, but the distinctive features of a demi-human's body are not ordinarily things one may touch as one pleases."
"I'm not touching them as I please, though?"
Hoeyeon shot back.
"I only touch them because it's you."
"…Ahem."
Arang gave a small cough. She seemed flustered, caught off guard.
"Is that so."
"Yeah. So can I touch your ears?"
"…Do as thou wilt."
Her words were prim, but her fox tail swayed with unmistakable anticipation.
Hoeyeon suddenly found something odd.
Has her tail always been this honest?
She didn't remember Arang's feelings being this transparent through her tail when they first met. If they had been, that mysterious air of Arang's would never have existed in the first place.
It was only a guess, but perhaps Arang had come to trust her deeply—and the way one drops one's careful expressions in front of a friend, she had simply stopped managing her tail as carefully.
The thought was embarrassing, and joyful.
"How about here?"
At the spot Arang indicated—sunlit and level—Hoeyeon spread out a cloth and sat down. Arang sat as well.
Right in front of Hoeyeon, with her back turned.
"Thou mayest begin."
"Huh?"
When Hoeyeon could only tilt her head, Arang's ears pricked straight up as if in anger.
Only then did Hoeyeon realize Arang had already positioned herself so that Hoeyeon could make good on her request to touch her ears.
"This one has endured such shame, and yet thou…"
"Sorry! Right now—"
"Enough!"
Arang's tail swatted away the hand Hoeyeon had raised.
"I'm really sorry…"
"Hmph… If thou seekest forgiveness, then beg for it."
"I'm sorry. Please forgive me."
"Try harder than that."
Hmm, Hoeyeon thought. Even if she tried harder, Arang's emotion wasn't so much anger as sulking.
To soothe a sulk…
"Arang, your eyes are really beautiful."
"…What is this, all of a sudden?"
"I've thought so from the start. Like someone gathered up sunlight and made it into jewels."
"…Hmph."
"It's not just the color that's pretty. Your eyes as a whole are really beautiful. Enough that I want to keep looking at them."
"Very well. I forgive thee."
Seeing the tail sway soft and gentle once more, Hoeyeon slowly set her hand on Arang's ear.
She lightly touched the triangular tip, then traced down along the ear and gently scratched near the base. The tension melted out of Arang's body.
"Haaa…"
It was the first time she had touched Arang's ears in her true form.
But from the expression she could glimpse, the response of the muscles in Arang's shoulders and neck, and that swaying tail, it seemed she liked it, thankfully.
"…To continue what I was saying earlier—ordinarily, the distinctive features of a demi-human carry a meaning befitting their special nature."
At the words of Arang, who had been purring contentedly, Hoeyeon asked, "Is that so?"
"For instance… among us Fox-kin, those who may freely touch one's ears are one's parents…"
Arang's voice grew small.
"And one's mate alone."
Hoeyeon's startled fingers stilled.
Arang's heart pounded hard, but she said nothing and waited.
And when Hoeyeon did not pull her hand away, but began to scratch again, Arang closed her eyes once more and surrendered herself to the pleasant sensation.
"Hoeyeon."
"Yeah?"
"How many people dost thou believe thyself capable of holding?"
"…I don't know."
Hoeyeon understood well enough what Arang was implying.
"Honestly, I have no idea."
"Is that so."
"What about you, Arang?"
When Hoeyeon turned the question back on her, fingers buried in that pure white hair, Arang answered,
"To speak truly, I know not either."
"Same here."
"The same, indeed."
And without either of them quite starting it, they both laughed.
"I really don't know what someone who was once an emperor thinks."
"This one is the same… yet perhaps the truly important words are these."
"What?"
"That even in one's own eyes, that person is someone one could fall in love with."
Arang said,
"This one, too, would be angry if another stood in the same place within thy heart as this one does. And yet, if it is Gayul… such thoughts do not arise. Hoeyeon."
"Yeah?"
At the seriousness in Arang's voice, Hoeyeon paused the hand that had been stroking the fox ear.
"What dost thou think of this one?"
"I don't know."
Having said so, Hoeyeon resumed caressing the fox ears that only a lover was meant to touch.
"What about you? What do you think of me?"
"I cannot claim certainty… This one knows not either."
Arang laughed softly.
"Then since neither of us knows, shall the two of us confirm it?"
"Is it okay to just go ahead and do it, to confirm?"
Arang turned around and gently caught Hoeyeon's chin between her fingers.
"I believe it will not end with mere confirmation—and so, it is fine."
Her first kiss with Arang was mischievous as a fox, and left behind a sweetness like sugar melting on the tongue before it fell away.
"Well? Hast thou confirmed it?"
"…Yeah. I confirmed it."
"This one has confirmed it as well."
And with that, Arang laughed—heehee. That playful laugh set Hoeyeon's heart racing.
"What is it? Did thy heart flutter?"
"Yeah."
"I—is that so. That is… a good thing."
Faced with Hoeyeon's honest answer, it was Arang who grew shy instead.
"Truly… this one, and Gayul as well… Perhaps it is thee who is the frightening one."
Arang, who was used to her partners flushing when she teased them, pouted.
"Arang, have you ever had your heart race because of me?"
"…What art thou saying all of a sudden."
"No, it's a pretty natural question, actually."
"Truly. Why is it that I feel no displeasure when thou pressest so… A mystery, indeed."
Arang sighed.
"A few times, yes."
"Really?"
"Indeed."
"Most recently was—"
"I am so hungry I could die, so let us have breakfast at once."
"Wow, look at her changing the subject…"
Arang laughed again—heehee.
Too honest to be called coquettish, yet full of mischief.
Fox-play, through and through.
Yujeong was alone in the courtyard, loosening up her body.
"Nngh—ha."
Unless something special came up, warming up and swinging her sword had long been part of Yujeong's daily routine. And she needed to be loose if she was going to spar with Senior Sister Hoeyeon later, too.
"I want to win today."
They said we might set out again as early as today, so I might not get to fight for a while.
As Yujeong stretched her back with a long breath, her own pink hair drifted into view.
She had more or less gotten used to her appearance after awakening as an Oni-kin.
Having the color she'd carried her whole life suddenly transform into an entirely different, vivid shade had been more disorienting than expected.
And the horns were a completely new body part. The height she could pass under without ducking had changed, and the sensation when she touched them was still strange and wonderful.
"When Senior Sister touched them…"
That tingling, sweetly electric feeling had definitely been—
"Ahem."
Not something to be thinking about first thing in the morning.
After bouncing lightly on her feet a few last times to finish her warm-up, Yujeong drew the sword at her waist. As she ran through the motions her body knew by heart, her mind drifted easily elsewhere.
Yesterday she had heard the full explanation.
The road toward land the former emperor had forbidden anyone to enter.
Senior Sister Hoeyeon's grandfather. Gayul's older brother. Monsters called Masu. Demi-humans. Magic.
The words that had tangled together in her head seemed to unravel with every swing of her sword.
"Hooo…"
And as she let the fighting spirit rising in her heart ride out on her breath, she sensed someone behind her. She turned to find Gayul standing there.
"I've interrupted you. Forgive me."
"No, it's fine!"
"If you don't mind, may I watch?"
"Yes!"
Gayul remained where she was the entire time until Yujeong finished. And when Yujeong came up from the courtyard, Gayul held out a towel for her sweat.
"Thank you."
Yujeong accepted it gratefully and asked Gayul,
"Is there something you wanted to ask me?"
"Mm… Caught, am I."
"Well, if you stand there fidgeting the whole time waiting…"
"…There is something I wished to ask, yes."
"It's about Senior Sister, right?"
"How did you know?"
"What other topic would have Gayul fidgeting like that?"
At Yujeong's words, Gayul coughed awkwardly.
"I wondered if you might tell me what Hoeyeon was like as a child, from what you know of her."
"Hmm…"
As a lover, wanting to know about the other person's past was understandable—but was it all right for her to just talk freely about it behind Senior Sister's back?
While she hesitated, Yujeong suddenly remembered that the person in question, Hoeyeon, had been nowhere to be seen for some time.
"But where is Senior Sister? I haven't seen her since I woke up. Arang either."
"She seems to have gone off to play with Arang."
"Just the two of them, with Arang?"
Gayul nodded.
"Ohhh… Is that so?"
Yujeong had not the slightest desire to monopolize Hoeyeon.
If Gayul had ever intended to keep her to herself in the first place, Yujeong would never even have dared try to insert herself. Arang might have turned it into a love triangle and fought for her place, but Yujeong truly would have been able to do nothing at all.
But the two of them had gone off to play with just one person… In that case, wasn't it only fair that the remaining two got to share a few embarrassing stories about her?
"In exchange, I'll tell you about how Hoeyeon looked when she was acting as an instructor. I didn't see it for long, but still."
"Gayul, do you want to hear them in chronological order, or in the order that would embarrass Senior Sister the most?"