c014

At eleven p.m., the precinct is utterly silent save for the keyboard clicking underneath Seokga's fingers, and Hani's obnoxiously loud munching as she makes her way through a carton of japchae at a nearby desk. A few on-duty haetae are slumped over at their desks, twiddling their thumbs and waiting for a call. Chief Shim has retired for the night, having left only a few minutes earlier.

As Hani emits an impossibly loud slurp, Seokga tears his gaze away from the computer and homes in on his assistant. "Would you," he demands, "stop that?"

She frowns, chewing on the glass noodles and pointing at him with a wooden chopstick. "I offered to buy you some. You said no."

"I'm trying to concentrate," he sneers, but his heart isn't in it.

Seokga is exhausted.

Utterly exhausted.

He has been working for hours in this damned precinct, scouring records and footage, desperate for any indication that one of the gumiho on the list provided by Hani is indeed the Scarlet Fox, desperate for any indication of Choi Ji-ah's location. But none have come. He has even gone so far as to make three separate trips to the café where Ji-ah worked, hoping to find coworkers with some knowledge of her whereabouts. Yet on both missions, he has hit dead ends. The only thing still fueling him is his desire to fulfill his end of Hwanin's bargain. His desire to once again be a god with earthshaking power at his fingertips.

Hani peers at him curiously. Despite the late hour, the gumiho is as full of energy as ever. "You don't look too good."

He bristles. "Of course I look good," he cuts back. He is Seokga. Even fatigued, he is far above the mortal beauty standard.

The gumiho seems amused. "Do gods sleep?"

"Why wouldn't we sleep?" Seokga glares at her. Isn't she supposed to be locating Ji-ah's residence, family members, and other contacts? It's quick work, easy work, but Hani has yet to inform him of any developments. "Have you found anything on Choi Ji-ah? Like I told you to?"

She frowns at him. "I told you two hours ago when I got back from visiting her old high school. I have everything on her." She points to a manila folder by his arm. "I put it right there and said, ‘Here it is.' And you said, quote, ‘Get out of my sight, fox. I'm busy,' unquote. Ring a bell? I've been waiting for you to look through it for two hours now."

Seokga grimaces. He didn't even know she went to the school—an oversight on his part. Still scowling, he flips open the folder and skims the black-lettered writing.

Choi Ji-ah. Age eighteen. Brown eyes, black hair, five foot four. There's a printed picture, there—a round-faced girl clad in a high school uniform. He flips the page, still skimming. Graduated from New Sinsi High School. Currently enrolled at New Sinsi University as a medicine major, second-year. Family contacts…Seokga narrows his eyes.

"She's an orphan," Hani explains, setting down her takeout. "No family to speak of."

Great.He rubs his forehead. That will impede the investigation greatly. Seokga does not think that his ego can handle it if Iseung becomes a Dark World because of his failed coup. He can only be embarrassed so many times.

"She does have one friend. When I swung by her old school, I got a copy of her high school graduation's VHS footage and played it in the conference room. One girl cheered when her name was called, and they later left together." Hani swings her feet off the desk and strides over so she stands just behind him. He stiffens as she leans over his shoulder, her hair tickling his neck. She smells of citrus and vanilla, of crackling fires and—

Seokga scowls.

Why does he care what she smells like?

He doesn't.

"Look." Her breath is warm against his skin as she flips to a different page, her finger tapping a grainy image of a lanky girl walking side by side with Ji-ah. "This is her. I rewound the graduation footage to hear her name being called. Kim Sora. So if we go back here…" She flips back to Ji-ah's file and points to the bolded words: Emergency Contact. "Boom. Kim Sora. This is her home phone number"—Hani taps the eleven digits with a manicured nail—"and this is her current address. Her apartment on the NSU campus." He can feel her grin. "You can thank me now."

"Wait." Seokga grabs her wrist and twists up to meet her wine-brown stare, half-impressed, half-skeptical. "How did you convince the school to give you the footage?" She has no badge, no credentials.

Her returning smile is pure fox. "I stole it." Undiluted mischief dances in her eyes—playful mischief that stirs something deep within him, something that answers to the troublemaking glint in her gaze. He can't help but to smile back—a crafty smile that seems to momentarily confuse her. He can appreciate a good theft, after all.

"Nicely done, fox," he purrs. "Perhaps you're not entirely useless. What a welcome surprise."

Her grin returns. "I'll take that as a compliment," she croons back.

Seokga is suddenly aware of their proximity. The feeling of her hair against his neck as she leans over him, the heat radiating from her body, his hand around her wrist. For a brief moment, god and gumiho stare at each other with matching expressions of stubborn dislike that seem to mask, on both sides, a flickering of respect.

But then Hani reaches down and flicks his nose—and just like that, the moment is ruined.

The gumiho's audacity never fails to astound him.

Swallowing his hiss of agitation, he releases his grip on her and she steps back as he rises, grabbing his cane. "Get your things," he says shortly. "We have a visit to pay."

Seokga can feel Hani gaping at him. "You don't mean to visit Sora now, do you?" she asks, reaching for her corduroy tote bag.

Exasperated, he sends a what do you think look over his shoulder. Of course he means to pay Kim Sora a visit now.

"It's eleven—"

"It's March. The first semester of college. She'll be awake. And we don't have a moment to lose." Because Seokga wants nothing more than to leave this miserable, miserable realm behind in exchange for Okhwang. "She may know where Ji-ah is." He doesn't wait for her response before striding out of the precinct and starting his car. Hani joins him a moment later, slipping into the passenger seat and shutting the door with too much force for his precious vehicle.

"Gentle," he snaps out of the corner of his mouth.

"Sorry," she says, not sounding very sorry at all.

New Sinsi University is a sprawling campus of white brick buildings and cherry blossom trees already in full bloom illuminated by various wrought-iron streetlights and the ambient glow of the city. As Seokga and Hani make their way through a passage of sidewalk lined by at least one dozen of the damn trees, Seokga fights back a particularly violent sneeze. Hani is watching him with an amused side-eye.

"Are you allergic to cherry blossoms?" she asks curiously.

"No."

"I could have sworn that you were holding back a sneeze."

"I wasn't."

"Mm," she hums, not sounding convinced in the slightest. "So—what's your plan to get Sora to talk? She's a human. You can't really tell her that her friend is the sole witness to an eoduksini draining the life out of somebody, and you definitely can't tell her that you're a fallen god. We need a cover story," she muses. "A good cover story that can get us answers. Let's see…Oh!" She turns to him excitedly, now walking backward in order to grin wickedly at him. "What about good cop, bad cop? We can be undercover officers from the human precinct. I'll be good cop, of course, and you—"

Speak of the devil.Seokga opens his mouth to hiss a warning but it's too late.

"Oomph!"He can only watch as Hani collides with a stern-looking campus policeman, her back hitting his chest.

"Watch where you're going," the policeman snaps, shoving Hani off him. She bows in apology, even as Seokga can see that her expression is anything but remorseful—it's annoyed. He pushes down amusement as the chubby officer frowns at the pair of them. "Are you two students?"

Seokga inclines his head in a nod. "Yes." He makes to step around him, but the officer blocks him, seeming dubious.

"I'm going to have to ask to see your IDs," he says and crosses his arms. "Two students were found dead a couple of nights ago. You two shouldn't be out this late." He waits with a hand outstretched, anticipating their student identification cards. "I'm sure you know that punishment for breaching this curfew is a fine."

Well, then. It seems as if he has no choice. Seokga sighs and reaches for his remaining threads of power. It's ironic that most people in power—even common cops—have always possessed enough malice and deceit for Seokga to control. He hopes that is also the case for this particular policeman. He'll exhaust himself for nothing if it isn't.

Have him forget that he saw us,Seokga commands them as the emerald tendrils of mist wrap around the officer, whose eyes unfocus. Thankfully, his magic is able to take hold of the cop—for a price. Seokga cannot imagine anything more humiliating than swooning in front of Hani, but with the way his head is swimming in fatigue, he worries it's not an impossibility. Have him forget that he…

"What are you doing?" Hani asks, staring at the bands of power tightening around the officer, invisible to the mortal's eyes.

"What I planned to do to Sora." He'd been hoping to compel the answers out of her in this way—but after this, he knows that he'll be far too tired to summon his power again. When the officer closes his eyes, Seokga coils the magic back into himself and clutches his cane tightly. Between this compulsion today, and the compulsion of the drowning witness on the first, it is a struggle for Seokga to keep himself sharp and alert. He closes his eyes and tries to compose himself.

"Seokga?" Hani is asking, and Seokga feels her inquisitive stare like spiders scuttling down his back. He will not faint in front of her. He knows that if he does, he will never hear the end of it.

"Are you about to faint?"

Seokga's eyes snap open and he glowers at her. "No."

"Because it looks like you are," she continues with a smug little smile. "I'm not sure I'll catch you. I think watching you drop to the ground could be fun."

The nerve. "I just," he grits out, "need some caffeine. Get me some." Now. Before he amuses Hani by hitting the pavement like a stone.

Hani's smirk grows. "We have places to be, Seokga. Maybe, if you speak nicely to Sora, I'll get you a coffee afterward. And I won't even put too much extra sugar in it."

Seokga flattens his lips into a thin line, irritation swarming in his chest. But because the universe hates him, he is simply too tired to argue with her. "Fine," he mutters, attempting valiantly to keep his eyes open. "Let's go."

"Wait." The fox is staring at the officer with a crafty little smirk that has Seokga tilting his head in curiosity. The glitter in her gaze is dangerous, suggesting a shrewd mind whirling with a clever idea. "Wait," she repeats. Her voice is low, conspiratorial, and sends a small thrill through him. "I have an idea."

"This does not fit," Seokga grumbles in one of the university's bathrooms, immensely peeved at the turn of events. He glares haggardly at himself in the mirror, clad in the officer's uniform, which is much too baggy on him. The black pants are at least twice his size, but only fall to his calves, and the stiff, navy-blue collared shirt smells of body odor and cheap cologne. The pins and badges make the shirt feel heavy against his skin, and he does not like having a gun at his waist—he has hated guns since their invention. They have always felt like cheating to him.

And the hat.

The navy-blue hat with the symbol of the human police department—the golden bird with outstretched wings—is far too big for his head. It slumps over his eyes. Seokga bites down on his rage as he shoves it back up. He is too tired to cope with looking this ridiculous.

Hani is waiting on the other side of the bathroom door. "It doesn't need to look perfect," she calls through the wood. "You just need to look like a policeman. A human policeman."

Seokga casts a glance at the unconscious officer lying in his underwear on the cold tiles of the bathroom floor. There is a rather large red welt on his head, courtesy of Seokga's cane. "I look nothing like that pathetic worm."

"Say what you will," comes Hani's muffled response, "but this way, Sora will be obligated to tell us the answers we're looking for. You're a campus policeman, and Choi Ji-ah is a missing university student." She knocks on the door, her raps quick, impatient, and grating on his already-frayed nerves. "Are you done yet?"

His mood significantly darkening with each passing moment, Seokga slowly pulls open the door and shoves his own clothes, folded neatly in a pile, into Hani's arms. "Put them in your bag," he orders, adjusting the hat once again. "And don't look at me like that." Her gaze is shining with gleeful mockery.

"Fine," she hums, folding the clothes into her tote. "Fine, fine, fine." But laughter is still audible in her tone as she steps aside to let Seokga enter the silent hallway.

It had been a struggle smuggling the officer's unconscious form into the admissions building, especially since they'd had to keep to the bushes and shadows to avoid the security cameras stationed outside the entrance. Hani, in an act of what she called "genius," had decided to, with a hefty rock and a violent pitch, break a lower-level window located just outside a camera's range. Seokga had wanted to throttle her. She was only spared from his wrath by his inability to fight in one-on-one combat while exhausted, and by the fact that nobody came running.

The following ordeal of throwing the man inside and climbing in after him has tired Seokga even further. That policeman is heavy.

Sora's dormitory is not far from here. "We should get going," Hani says, casting a glance about the hallway. "It's nearing twelve."

Seokga scowls as he once again shoves up the rim of the hat and follows Hani out of the quiet, darkened admissions building and onto the campus outside. The night air is cold and crisp as the pair keep to the shadows, creeping toward the large dormitory building in which their contact lays. Their footsteps echo on the pavement, accompanied by the soft clicking of Seokga's cane as he reluctantly trudges along, desperate for his coffee.

"Locked," Hani mutters, testing the glass door.

There is an ID card in the policeman's pocket. "Let me," Seokga says impatiently, gesturing for Hani to move aside, the card in between his fingers. Lee Byung-ho, the ID card reads underneath a small, square image of the heavyset policeman. Campus Officer. He holds it against the black ID scanner. The door unlocks with a click. Triumphant, Seokga wraps his fingers around the cool metal handle and tugs the door open. Hani immediately tries to enter first; he cuts her off and slips into the building before her. She mutters a foul word behind him, and it's an effort to stop his lips from tilting upward.

"Sora is on the seventh floor," he says under his breath, nodding a stiff greeting to the weary-looking woman at the front desk. "Room 42G."

Hani is already making her way to the elevator door and pushing the up button with her thumb. The metal doors slide open with a muted ding and Hani steps inside, followed closely by Seokga, who wrinkles his nose against the elevator's musty smell. As Hani presses the grimy 7 button, the doors shut, and with a slight whir the elevator begins its ascent.

Hani leans against the wall opposite him and grins. "You really do look striking."

Insufferable fox. "Not another word," Seokga mutters, fantasizing about the coffee she has promised him. Icy. Cold. Caffeine. He needs it now.

She winks, toying with a silky strand of brown hair. "I've always loved a man in uniform," she replies with another one of those wicked smiles. "And you fit the look quite well, Seokga."

"Be quiet." The elevator doors cannot open quickly enough.

Hani pouts as she holds out her hands, pressing her wrists together. He watches incredulously as she bats her eyes. "Arrest me, Officer—"

The elevator doors slide open with a cheerful ding!

Finally.

Seokga sends Hani a final scowl before exiting, cursing his father violently for creating the world and, subsequently, creating annoying gumiho who do not know when to keep silent. Lost in his brooding thoughts, Seokga barely notices the glossy linoleum floors, smooth white walls, or bright overhead lights. With a small noise of exasperation, Hani catches his sleeve and yanks him to a halt. He nearly missed Sora's door.

"Here." She gestures to the plain wooden door with the chipped, bronze number 42 atop the brown surface. "Knock," she says under her breath. "Say that you're with the campus police. Rap your fist against the door and—"

"I know how to knock."

Hani shrugs. "Just checking."

Seokga takes a moment to push up his hat before striking the door thrice with his imoogi hilt, each thud reverberating through the otherwise silent corridor. Hani jumps and sends him a glare of disbelief.

"Seriously?" she demands. "You didn't have to do it that loud. You'll probably scare the poor girl to death."

"We need answers," he bites back shortly. "And if she's sleeping, I'll knock down—"

The door opens.

An unimpressed-looking girl stares back at Hani and Seokga with dark-rimmed eyes. Her hair is limp and lanky, her skin gaunt and pale under the hallway's harsh lights. "Yes?" she asks, frowning as she takes them in. In her hands she holds a bowl of still-steaming instant tteokbokki and there are faint red stains of gochujang around her thin lips. "Who are you?"

"You're Kim Sora, correct?" Seokga asks, shoving up the damned hat again.

"That's correct, yes," Sora replies warily. "And you are?"

"Officer Lee," he replies, guiding his voice to a flat, professional cadence that's not cold enough for Hani to deny him his coffee. "And this is my assistant. An Noying."

Hani chokes in outrage; Seokga presses on.

"We have a few questions for you regarding your friend Choi Ji-ah."

Sora's mouth tightens. "I see."

"We hate to take up your time," Hani adds, "and we apologize for a visit this late. But Ji-ah has gone missing, and we worry that she is in danger—"

"Ji-ah hasn't been kidnapped," Sora replies thinly. "You're wasting your time. She's run away. Again."

Seokga cocks his head. Sora's voice is irritated—but not at them. At Ji-ah. "What do you mean," he asks, "?‘again'?" Next to him, Hani is frowning in contemplation.

"I mean," Sora mutters, "that she's always been like this. I get that she has a hard life—I do. I get it, okay? But she does this all the time. Whenever something even remotely upsets her, she runs away. She's done it since we were kids, only as we got older, the distance she ran increased." Sora stirs her tteokbokki and takes a bite, leaning against the door. Just past her shoulder, Seokga can make out an unmade bed, a floor littered with laundry, and a desk groaning under the weight of a dozen textbooks. He stares at her bed. What he wouldn't give to collapse on a soft mattress, pull the covers over his head, and pass out. He blinks slowly, fighting back a yawn. "Anyway, you're wasting your time. She'll come back eventually."

"When was the last time you saw her?" Seokga asks, returning his stare to the university student with difficulty.

Sora shrugs. "Early yesterday morning. She ran over here, blubbering about something that had happened at work. She said: ‘I'm in danger, Sora. I gotta go.'?" She rolls her eyes in clear disdain. "I could barely even tell what she was saying, she was so hysterical. Aish. The drama queen. And then she was off as quickly as she'd come."

Seokga frowns. Even frowning is an effort at the moment, but he does it anyway. "And you didn't follow?"

Sora glares at him. "Why would I? This has happened four times in the past semester. I swear, being friends with her is the stupidest decision I ever made. She's an emotional leech, do you know that? Write that in your report." She points to Seokga's uniform with a scowl.

He raises his brows, slightly amused, slightly disgusted, and extremely tired. "Do you know, at least, where she went?"

Sora scoffs. "Well, after begging me for money—my money, mind you, like she doesn't have some of her own from that café—I assumed she went to her new favorite hiding spot. Geoje Island," she adds in answer to Seokga's demanding stare. "There's an abandoned village there where she's liked to hide recently. It's a ghost town, deep in the forest, and isn't even on most maps. I'm assuming she went there once with her archeology class last year." Sora takes another bite of tteokbokki, glaring at the noodles as she continues, "If you take a bus to Busan, you can catch another bus going from the Busan Seobu terminal over the bridge to Okpo, the main city there on Geoje. That's what I think she did." Sora stabs at a rice noodle with notable vehemence. "I wouldn't bother going," she mumbles. "She likes being alone. She'll come back eventually before leaving all over again once something else sets her off."

"What's the name of the village?" Hani's eyes are wide. "Do you know?"

Sora shakes her head. "It doesn't have a name. Ji-ah said it's in a bamboo forest on Geoje. Maengjongjuk Forest. It's open to everybody, as long as you stay on the trail. To get to the village, you have to go off the path. Way, way off the path." She hesitates. "Do you think she's really in danger?"

"Maybe," says Seokga, staring again at her bed. If he doesn't get some coffee in him soon, he will be out like a light.

"Oh." Sora hesitates, looking querulous for the first time. "Are you guys…going to go find her?"

"If we're in the mood." Seokga turns away. "Thank you for your time."

"Wait." Sora's voice is suddenly small. Timid. He turns back impatiently. Busan is already two hours and forty-five minutes away from New Sinsi—and Okpo even farther.

Not to mention that blissful unconsciousness is also looming before him. He needs coffee and a nap—and he has no time to waste.

"If you find Ji-ah…Will you be able to make sure she doesn't go off like this again?" Unshed tears swim in her eyes. "Please?"

Seokga fights down annoyance. Humans and their emotions. Why didn't you stop her from going? he wants to snap. Our one witness is all the way on Geoje Island, thanks to you. Biting his tongue, he turns away again, and Hani is the one to answer instead, murmuring reassuring promises that Seokga doubts will be fulfilled.

If the eoduksini is also looking for Ji-ah—if the eoduksini gets to her first—Kim Sora will never see her friend again.

With a muttered curse, Seokga sets off down the dormitory hall.

If he weren't a god himself, he might have muttered a prayer.