c015

Seokga is asleep on Hani's couch.

An empty Styrofoam coffee cup is held close to his chest as he slumbers, scowling even in his sleep. Because Hani is nothing if not good, charitable, and altogether an extremely nice person, she kept true to her word and bought the exhausted god coffee at the twenty-four-hour campus café. She only dumped in three extra packs of sugar, too.

If Hani liked Seokga, she would have felt empathy for him. Such a high cost for using so little power.

But Hani does not like Seokga, so she is more amused than anything.

The energy boost lasted him long enough to drive to her apartment (which he so kindly deemed a disgusting hovel), stagger out of the car, into her building, and collapse on her ratty couch.

She suspects his exhaustion is the only reason why he is allowing her to accompany him to Geoje. Hani prattled on about it endlessly in the car until he gave in. She doubts, though, that he really heard any of her motivational speech about how she will defend Iseung to the death before it turns into a Dark World. He seemed to have been mainly focused on keeping his eyes open.

Now, Hani is supposed to be packing for their trip to Geoje, and not figuring out how to destroy the VHS tapes she snuck home in her tote bag, but Hani rarely does as she's told. In her small bedroom, Hani quietly shuts the door on the sleeping Seokga, and wonders what the repercussions of destroying all ten tapes would be.

It would be a brilliant plan, except for the fact that she's on file as the last person to have the tapes. Chewing on her bottom lip, Hani runs through the possibilities in her mind. She could hide them, of course, and pretend she lost them. But Seokga is an inherently suspicious person, and Hani was slightly unnerved when he asked for her age in the car. He was making a barbed joke, of course, but still. Hani wasn't even supposed to bring the tapes home in the first place, and it was tricky enough keeping her tote bag closed and herself quiet throughout their trip to the university. She has to be careful.

Sighing, Hani rummages through the tapes until she finds the one labeled yum mart, as well as three others from establishments near Bonmal Street. Whatever the case, she can't allow these to go back to the precinct.

Aware that the trickster god is sleeping in the next room over, Hani quickly takes the tapes containing pesky evidence, and considers their fate with grim determination. The haetae at the precinct had said to keep the ones they need and toss the ones they don't. She'll certainly be tossing these, but they'll expect her to have found something on the other VHS tapes. If she comes back empty-handed, it will look suspicious.

There's a tiny television in the corner of her room. Hani reluctantly loads one of the other tapes into it—one from a street she and Somi didn't take—and plays it back, scouring for footage she could claim to be "suspicious." There are hours' worth of footage, but she fast-forwards, eyes glued to the screen. Maybe she can claim that the old woman hobbling down the sidewalk with a bag of what looks like carrots is suspicious. Who eats vegetables?

"Hani?"

Shit. Hani jumps almost a foot in the air as Seokga's voice, sharp and slightly husky, comes through the door. She curses whoever designed this apartment—there's no lock on the bedroom door. Foolishly, she'd thought he'd be out for at least another hour. "Don't come in!" she screeches, leaping to her feet and staring down at the collection of tapes on the floor in panic. "I'm naked!"

There's a long silence on the other end. Quickly, Hani pops the tape out of her TV and shuts it off. She gathers the four incriminating tapes and, in a moment of frazzled folly, shoves them underneath her bed.

"Why," Seokga asks slowly, "are you naked?"

"Trust me," she pants, gathering the other six and cramming them back into her tote bag, "it has nothing to do with you."

"I would hope not," he snaps back, sounding affronted at the very thought.

Hani pauses from her frantic cleaning to be completely and thoroughly offended.

"We're leaving as soon as you're not naked," Seokga continues frostily. "We've wasted enough time."

"You mean that you have wasted enough time," Hani retorts, stuffing the tote bag in her closet. "I wasn't the one who needed a nap." The tapes somewhat dealt with, Hani hastens to stuff spare clothes into a duffel bag. She also strips down—truly, this time—to swap her clothes out for new ones, in case Seokga continues to ask why she was naked. Nosy, bossy god.

There's a thud from the other side of the door, and Hani glares as the battered wood reverberates. "Did you just kick my door?" she snaps, glad that the chair is in place to prevent it from swinging open and revealing Hani in nothing but her underwear. There's another long pause, leaving her time to pull on a soft sweater and jeans.

"No," Seokga very clearly lies.

Muttering curses about fallen gods under her breath, Hani smooths down her hair, grabs her duffel, kicks aside the chair, and opens the door. Seokga leans against the doorframe, eyes puffy from sleeping, and she's pleased to see that his usually perfect hair is slightly mussed. "I don't like you," she informs him with a deep, soul-baring honesty.

"I'll get over it." His sharp green eyes try to slide past her into the bedroom, and she moves to block his vision. But it's too late. She opened the door too wide, and he's seen something.

"Why are there tapes under your bed?"

Hwanin's tits. Hani is momentarily stunned by her own stupidity as Seokga, taking advantage of her shock, elbows his way into her room and points accusatorily to the four pieces of incriminating evidence under her twin-sized bed. In her haste, she didn't shove them back far enough or pull the blankets down to conceal them, and the rectangular edges peek out through the shadows.

Seokga is scowling. "Are those precinct tapes?"

Shit. Okay. She has to play this cool. Use her gumiho wiles. Hani blinks at Seokga's finger and then smiles sheepishly. "You caught me," she says.

He stares at her in thinly concealed suspicion. She needs to wipe that suspicion away immediately. And she also needs to make sure he doesn't open her underwear drawer, where her scarlet daggers are hidden. She'd like to take them to Geoje, but with the hunt going on, she is perfectly fine with them being nestled underneath her lacy thongs. She'll rely on her sharp wit and sharp claws on Geoje, though she'll have to refrain from utilizing her fox bead again, in fear of the haetae locating the potent energy flare and tracing it to her.

Hani fixes her best approximation of a silly assistant on her face. "I didn't have time to go through all of them today at the precinct. I mean, you were working me like a dog. A list of names in an hour. Really? And I know I shouldn't have, but I brought them home." Heart beating fast against her chest, Hani walks over to the bed and stoops down to gather the evidence. "I've gone through these, but the six others in there"—she points to the tote bag, where the harmless tapes are—"are still unwatched. I was going to go through some before we left for Geoje." The temptation to throw the incriminating videos she holds in her hands out the window before Seokga can demand to see them is oh-so tempting. She tries not to hold them tight enough that her knuckles shine, but she's gripping them with a hard determination. He won't take them from her. He won't.

Seokga's eyes are fixed on her face. His mouth is a thin line, and his brows are pinched together.

"I didn't want to tell you in case you didn't let me go to Geoje. I want to stop the eoduksini from making this place into a Dark World." She grits her teeth, and then forces out the most difficult word she has ever said to this great, insufferable ass. "Sorry," she mutters.

"What was that?"

Hani glares. "You know what I said."

Seokga is smirking, and although it's infuriating, at least the suspicion hardening his face has mostly disappeared. "I don't, actually."

"Oh, fuck off," Hani grumbles before she can stop herself, and just like that, the last remnants of Seokga's visible suspicion drains away. As casually as she can, she places the four tapes on her desk, stacking them in a neat pile. She waits for him to reach toward them, but he doesn't.

Instead, the god eyes the rest of her room, taking in the uneven floorboards, the desk that she uses as a vanity cluttered with various cosmetics, the pile of dirty laundry in one corner (her empty basket was mysteriously stolen from the laundry room two weeks ago), and the box of Choco Pies situated on one of her pillows.

Hani tries not to flush as he walks to her bookshelf, which groans underneath the weight of hundreds of battered romance books. Seokga pinches one—Kidnapped by the Time-Traveling Highland Pirate-King—between his fingers and glances to her in dismay. She glares back, refusing to be ashamed of enjoying both the raunchy, cliché cover and its deliciously smutty content. Who knew she had a thing for pirates who wore kilts, time-traveled, and rolled their r's?

"Would you like to borrow it?" she offers sweetly.

"I would rather die. This place is a mess," he adds, nose wrinkled as he tosses the book back, "and I'm embarrassed to even be seen in it. I'll be waiting in the car."

Seokga sighs as he backs the Jaguar out of its parking spot. "You know—"

Hani cuts him off. "Yes, Seokga," she croons, "I know that you'd much rather have me stay behind. I'm choosing to ignore that little fact."

She can almost swear that he smirks at that.

"Have you ever been on a ferry before?" Hani asks, twirling a strand of hair around a finger. "Some of them have gift shops with candies—"

"We're not taking the ferry," Seokga says. "There's a bridge between Busan and Geoje that we'll take."

"A bridge?" Hani furrows her brow. She hasn't heard of any bridge that spans the expanse of water separating the two cities.

"They're calling it the Busan-Geoje Fixed Link. It's been glamoured by a shaman. Humans don't know about it yet, but I assume they'll somehow manage to infiltrate it eventually, and meddle in its design." Mortals. Sticking their hands where they're not needed. Seokga turns them onto the city street. "But it's not for them. Bulgasari architects created it for the fairies. Geoje has a large yojeong population, and their wings are too delicate to handle long-distance flights. I memorized the route to the bridge. We'll reach it in around three and a half hours."

Hani arches a brow, resting her head against the window. "That's quicker than I expected," she says suspiciously.

"I plan to speed," is the smooth retort.

"Clever," Hani mumbles, her eyelids growing heavy as she nestles back into the leather seat. "Do you want to alternate drivers?" she asks, stifling a yawn. If she's exhausted, she can only imagine how tired Seokga is, even after his nap. Seokga scoffs.

"You're not driving my car."

She rolls her eyes. "If we crash because—"

Hani is cut off by a shrill, high-pitched ringing. Seokga makes a small noise of agitation, reaching for his cellphone and pressing it to his ear. "What," he snaps, and Hani rolls her eyes again. Seokga clearly has much to learn in the way of manners.

"Seokga,"the voice on the other side of the line says. "It's Officer Park. Three more bodies have been uncovered—all within the past half-hour. We don't have a lead on the eoduksini, but…"

"But what," he demands sharply, his fists tightening around the wheel.

"All three victims are…brutalized in a way that the last two weren't. We're conducting a questioning with the souls before they ride to Jeoseung, but no new information is coming to light. If you want to come down to the station, see the bodies for yourself…I think that it's imperative you do so before chasing any new leads."

Three more victims. Hani swallows bile. The eoduksini is still in New Sinsi—still feasting. She watches as Seokga's jaw flexes, his brows lowering.

"I'll be there in ten." He tucks away the phone and glances to Hani with narrowed eyes. "I assume, fox, that you heard all of that."

"Three more bodies," she replies slowly. "Brutalized bodies. How can they be any more brutalized than Euna and the haetae were?"

"That," he says tightly, "is what we're going to go see. We can spare twenty minutes at the precinct, no more, no less." The Jaguar growls as he hits the gas, speeding through the city at a breakneck speed. "Damn it," he snarls under his breath. "Damn it."

Five minutes later, the Jaguar skids to a halt before the haetae precinct, the wheels screeching on the pavement. Hani jumps out of the car as Seokga slams his door hard enough that his entire beloved vehicle shakes. She struggles to keep up with him across the parking lot, his cane clenched so tightly in his hand that even from a few feet away, Hani can see the white shine of his knuckles.

Snap. Snap. Snap.There is a dokkaebi paparazzo lurking near the precinct's door and taking rapid-fire shots of Seokga and Hani, probably for Godly Gossip. Hani grimaces. The last thing she wants is dating rumors with Seokga.

Snap. Snap. Sna—

Seokga wrestles the camera from his grip, crushes it under his foot, and storms into the precinct.

"Hey—"the dokkaebi hollers, but the doors slam on him. Grim-faced haetae officers hastily clear out of the way as Seokga storms through the precinct and bursts into the morgue with what is almost a snarl. As Hani slips through the wildly swinging doors, Dok-hyun startles from where he is standing over a body, examining it with an array of metal tools.

Hani freezes in horror as her eyes fall upon the motionless victim.

He lies on the cold metal table, his eyes shut and forever unseeing, his skin splattered with red and marred by those horrible black veins. There is a gaping red cavity in his chest, gore bursting from the wound, as if…

As if his heart has been ripped from his body.

The victim's sallow cheeks are sunken and scratched, vicious red cuts dragging from his brow to his chin, jagged and deep. Both of his ears are missing, only empty holes left behind, dried blood trickling down his broken neck. And his left arm…It dangles uselessly, only half attached to his shoulder, holding on just barely by a few nearly frayed cords of muscle.

Hani presses a hand to her mouth, horror tightening her chest, blocking her airway. "Fuck," she breathes, her stomach churning. "Oh, fuck."

Seokga's back is stiff and straight, his face pale. "Details, Dok-hyun. Now."

Dok-hyun removes his surgical mask with a grimace. "Pak Jonghoon. Human. Age forty-three. Found outside of a convenience store in the shopping district."

"And the others?"

Hani follows Seokga's gaze to the steel vaults lining the walls of the morgue. Her neck feels hot, damp and clammy with sweat, and it's an effort to look back to Pak Jonghoon's mutilated body. She holds the sleeve of her black sweater to her nose and mouth. Blood's coppery tang is overwhelming. She hasn't seen a corpse this badly mutilated since her heyday as the Scarlet Fox, when she was hunting down Jack the Ripper.

I'm going to be sick,she thinks. I'm going to be sick.

"One bulgasari and another human. All mutilated in the same manner. The bulgasari was found by a security guard in the city junkyard, where it had been eating metals. The other human was discovered in an alleyway on the city's edge. If you would like to see—"

A small noise escapes Hani's lips. No. No, she doesn't want to see them. Not at all.

"No," Seokga says quickly, his eyes snapping to Hani in what almost—almost—looks like apologetic concern. "No. We've seen enough."

"I see," Dok-hyun replies, bowing his head before covering Jonghoon's body with a sheet of white fabric, which is stained and spotted with blood. "The bodies," he says a moment later, "hold considerably more evidence of violence than the other two victims. It's clear from the veins that the eoduksini is behind the attacks. The eoduksini," he says, looking up and meeting Seokga's eye with a dark grimness, "is very angry."

"Angry?" Hani manages to whisper. "What do you mean?"

Seokga is tilting his head, expression inscrutable.

Dok-hyun gestures to the sheet-covered corpse. "It's more than evident that the eoduksini used significantly more violence on this trio than it did on the gumiho and the haetae. I would assume that the monster was angry. Furious, even." He hesitates. "It took all three hearts. I'd guess that…it's eating them."

"Eating them?" Seokga asks sharply. "What signifies that?"

The pathologist frowns. "You don't know? It's in the literature. Eoduksini will sometimes eat the hearts of their victims. It doesn't necessarily help them grow stronger, but it…well, it likely tastes good." He licks his lips nervously.

"I hadn't known that," Seokga admits slowly as Hani looks back to the victim and bites down on her lip hard enough to taste blood. It is disconcerting to see this carnage. She's killed, yes, ripped out livers—but this is…different.

"And the murder weapon?" the trickster god asks, his voice slightly more hoarse than usual. "What do you think it was?"

"Brute strength," Dok-hyun replies haggardly. "Sheer, brute strength."

"It must not have found Ji-ah," Hani realizes before she can stop herself, her mouth dry. "The eoduksini is looking for her, trying to silence her, but it doesn't know where she is. It can't find her. Dok-hyun is right; it's angry."

"Ji-ah?" Dok-hyun looks confused. "Who is Ji-ah?"

"Our witness," Seokga replies. "She alone knows the eoduksini's form. We located her an hour ago."

Dok-hyun stiffens. "You can find her?" the forensic pathologist asks. Nervously, his eyes dart back and forth between Seokga and Hani. Something very much like suspicion pools in the bottom of Hani's stomach as she watches him straighten in acute interest.

Tooacute.

Something about this entire exchange is…off, somehow. The hairs on the back of her neck prickle, as if the primal fox instinct to sense a predator is seeping through to her human form.

Her eyes dart questioningly to Seokga's. The brief glance they share, Hani feels, conveys much, much more than either of their expressions do. She is careful to keep her face neutral, blank.

But how is it that Dok-hyun knew something about the eoduksini that even a god did not? She recalls his sharp interest in the eoduksini case's witness, beginning after that second autopsy, with some discomfort. How he licked his lips after suggesting that the hearts taste good. When she looks back at Dok-hyun, she sees him in a new light. A light that is not altogether pleasant.

"She fled." Seokga turns to Hani, his expression dark. "We need to move before it finds her. Come."

As they stride out of the morgue, Seokga's cane clicking on the tile floor, Hani glances over her shoulder to make sure Dok-hyun isn't following them. "Do you think…"

"Dok-hyun?" Seokga shakes his head, but his eyes are narrowed. "I'm not sure. I've known his family for centuries. They're annoying, but only to the extent that all humans are."

"But if the eoduksini's taken over his body, that's not Dok-hyun. You can't judge based on what you think you know about him and his family." Hani runs a hand through her hair. "I mean, did you see how he licked his lips? That was just—I mean, that was just disgusting."

"Yes. But that's not enough to move against him," the god replies curtly, pulling Hani around a hallway corner and into a grimy alcove. She folds her arms, glaring up at him. They are too close for Hani's liking, with less than a few inches between them.

"He knows more than he should."

"He said he found books in the library."

"Why are you defending him?" Hani asks curiously. "You don't even like him." She recalls his acerbic refutation that he and Dok-hyun are friends.

Seokga scowls. "He isn't squeamish about sticking his hands in dead bodies and gets the work done quickly. That's all. And unlike others"—he shoots a sideways glare as a haetae passes them in the corridor, whistling under her breath—"he doesn't ask me to introduce him to Hwanin, or where he gets his hair done, or whether he's single. As if I know. And I could ask for much less."

Hani leans against the wall. "Seokga," she says, "we have no other suspects right now. Even if all we have is a little suspicion against him, we should act. Iseung could be turned into a Dark World if we don't. I have an idea—"

"I don't trust your ideas," Seokga says, exhaling thinly through his nose.

Hani ignores him. "We detain Dok-hyun until we find Ji-ah. If she gives us a description that doesn't match him, we let him go with no hard feelings. If she describes him, then bam. Case closed, the mortal realm is saved, and you're halfway to reaching divinity again." She waits expectantly, arching an eyebrow.

It's clear that his strange god-brain is working hard. He narrows his eyes, and taps his cane on the ground, head cocked.

Finally, he sighs. "Fine. I'll tell Shim to put him under guard in a holding cell. Just until we get back from Geoje."

Chief Shim is waiting outside of the precinct, his eyes bloodshot and exhausted as he stands next to Hyun-tae and the sleek black hearse. "Seokga," he calls, voice cracking in the night air. "Where are you going?"

"Geoje," Seokga replies shortly. "We've located our witness. By the way, you might want to put Dok-hyun in a holding cell, and under heavy guard."

Shim blinks. "I— What was that, Seokga?"

"I said—"

"We think the eoduksini might have possessed Dok-hyun," Hani says quickly before Seokga can reply something truly nasty. "He knows too much about the eoduksini, and he's been asking about our witness. It's not a lot to go on, but we can't take any risks. Iseung is in danger."

"Lee Dok-hyun? Surely not." The old haetae looks alarmed. "Besides, precinct procedure requires more than just circumstantial evidence before detainment. You know that, Detective."

"Do you want this realm to be turned into a Dark World? You wouldn't last very long at all," Seokga snaps. "Detain him. That's an order. Even fallen, I outrank you."

"Seokga, that's just not how it works." Hani notes with amusement that the chief sounds like a harabeoji lecturing his grandson. "But Emperor Hwanin trusts you to solve this case, so this time—only this one time, Seokga—I'll bend the rules." He shakes his head and pulls out his walkie-talkie, turning away to issue the command into the microphone. Shim looks back at Seokga. "He'll be confined within minutes. I hope you know what you're doing. Dok-hyun is a good man."

Hani does not hear what Seokga replies in return; she is pulling out her cellphone (nabbed a while ago from a deliciously low-security tech store, along with one for Somi) with trembling fingers and punching in Somi's number. Turning away from the bleak conversation between the two men, she holds the ringing phone to her ear, gnawing on a nail until Somi picks up. Her voice is thick and sleepy—Hani woke her up.

"Hello?"

"Somi."

"Hani? Why are you calling so late?" She hears the rustling of sheets as Somi sits up, undoubtedly rubbing her eyes. "Is something wrong?" A familiar edge of panic seeps into her voice. "Oh, no. Oh, no—is—is Seokga—should I go to—does he know?"

"No. It's not about…that. I'm going to Geoje with Seokga, chasing a lead. You need to be careful while I'm gone. Don't go out at night." She knows that the odds are slim of Dok-hyun truly being the eoduksini's host, and Hani cannot abide the thought of anything happening to Somi while she's not there to protect her.

"Hani…" Somi sounds scared. "Hani, what's happened?"

"Three more bodies were found just now. I thought I should tell you."

"Three?" Somi's voice wavers. "You should be careful, too, unnie. You're already in enough danger."

"I'm fine." Hani is acutely aware of the fact that Seokga has gotten into his car, and that the engine is now running. She does not put it past him to drive off without her. "Look, I have to go now. But be safe, okay?"

"Wait. I-I have a question. I've been feeling odd…Hani?"

The Jaguar is pulling out of the parking space now. Seokga smiles nastily at her, probably planning to gun it before she can reach the car. "Somi, I have to go. Call me later, okay?" Hanging up, Hani glares at Seokga's car and starts to hurry over to the door of the passenger seat. But a hand on her shoulder stops her. She turns impatiently to meet Hyun-tae. The jeoseung saja's eyes are dark with concern behind his spectacles.

"Was that…your friend? From the café?"

Somi.Hani smirks in amusement as Hyun-tae's cheeks flush pink. "It was." She pauses, cocking her head as an idea slowly forms in her mind. "You're fond of her, aren't you? Of Somi?"

"Somi," Hyun-tae repeats almost wondrously, a smile tugging at his lips. "Her name is Somi," he whispers to himself.

Hani frowns at a still-smirking Seokga, conveying exactly what she will do to him if he speeds off without her. Hyun-tae balks, evidently mistaking her frown as meant for him.

"I-I mean," he clarifies, clearing his throat, "that I find her very…That is…She is a pleasant—"

His stuttering is answer enough.

He does care. Good.

"I'm leaving town," she says to the grim reaper, closing her hand around the car door's handle as Seokga honks, the noise shattering the otherwise silent night. Asshole. "I can't watch over her, and with the eoduksini in the city—"

Seokga honks again. Hani grits her teeth.

"If you care about her, look after her until I'm back. Get that part-time job at the café. Make sure she's safe. Somi—she's a bit innocent, na?ve to the world—I'm coming," she snaps as Seokga honks once again. Hani glares at him through the tinted window before twisting back to Hyun-tae. "Make sure nothing happens to her."

Hyun-tae straightens as this order reaches his ears. "I will protect Ms. Somi with my life," he replies dutifully. "No harm will come to her. I promise."

"Good," Hani sighs in relief, yanking open the car door. "By the way—if you fail, I'll kill you."

"Oh." Hyun-tae flinches. "Yes, ma'am."

With a sweet smile, Hani shuts the car door and nestles back in her seat. Outside, Hyun-tae bows in farewell and promise as the Jaguar pulls onto the awaiting street and disappears into the night.

"We're making one more quick stop," Seokga says as Hani buckles her seatbelt. She does not usually use seatbelts, but due to the breakneck speed at which Seokga is driving, it seems to be a good idea.

A very good idea.

Hani lifts a brow in curiosity. "Where are we going?"

"A weapons shop." The car narrowly avoids hitting the curb as Seokga executes a dangerously sharp turn.

"A weapons shop?" Hani repeats, not sure if she's misheard him or not.

"We need to be prepared for a fight. If the eoduksini isn't Dok-hyun, if it finds Ji-ah, blood will certainly be shed, and I'd like to make sure that it's not ours." Seokga blasts through an intersection, not paying any heed to the long line of cars now behind them. "I have a sword. You need something other than your claws."

"A sword? Where is it?" Hani asks curiously, twisting around to look at the backseat. There's nothing but two duffel bags and an empty water bottle.

Seokga taps the silver imoogi curled around his cane, which he's leaned against the door of the driver's side.

"That's a cane, not a sword." Her imagination births a vision of Seokga using his cane as a weapon, and she snorts. In her mind's eye, he resembles a grumpy old man chasing children from his lawn. She can't stifle the laugh that rips from her lips. "You don't mean that you wield that in a fight, do you?"

Seokga slides her one of those are you stupid looks. "The cane transforms into a sword," he drawls. "A very, very sharp sword that I will wield on you if you don't stop laughing."

How intriguing. Hani perks up in interest. "Am I getting a cane-sword, too, then?"

"No." Seokga slams on the brakes and Hani nearly topples forward, stopped only by the seatbelt. "No, you are most certainly not."

Seething, Hani takes in their surroundings. They're on the same street that the Creature Café is located on, parked before a small store with a sign reading weapons, war armor, and other wants. "They're open?" she asks skeptically as she joins Seokga at the wooden door, arching a brow.

"A dokkaebi named Jae-jin runs it," he replies, rapping his cane-sword's handle against the wood. "Jae-jin has no friends. So unlike other dokkaebi, he spends his nights working rather than partying. He's most certainly inside." He raps against the wood again. "Jae-jin," he calls through the door, his voice sharp and irritable. "I know that you're in here."

Hani doesn't know whether to laugh in amusement or cringe in sympathy for the creature inside.

A moment later, the door swings open, revealing a chubby dokkaebi with a pronounced underbite, wearing a pair of large, clear goggles and leather gloves. His eyes are distorted behind the goggles, bulging and fishlike. "Seokga! Sir!" he says eagerly, scampering aside to allow them entry. "What are you doing here?"

Seokga enters the shop, Hani close behind. Her eyes widen as she takes in the walls teeming with glittering swords and shining knives. This place is nothing short of heaven.

"I was working on some stuff in the back," Jae-jin stammers, hastily tugging off the gloves and the goggles. "I swear I don't usually walk around like this. Sir."

Seokga waves a hand impatiently. "Yes, I have enough common sense to figure that out myself, Jae-jin." He nods to Hani, who smiles in greeting. "This is my…assistant, Kim Hani," he says through his teeth, spitting out that one word—assistant—with no small amount of reluctance. "She's here to buy a weapon."

"It's nice to meet you," Jae-jin says with a hasty nod. "What sort of weapon are you looking for?"

Hani runs her eyes over the armed walls in admiration. "Do you make all of these?"

"Yes, ma'am." Jae-jin bobs his head eagerly. "And if you want something you don't see on these walls here, I can custom-make one for you—"

"We don't have that sort of time," Seokga cuts in. He jerks his head at Hani. "Choose something, fox, and let's go."

Hani's gaze lingers on a set of small silver twin daggers with plain white hilts. They're certainly not as beautiful as her scarlet ones, nor as deadly, but she can tell they'll do the job in a pinch. She approaches the wall on which they hang, and carefully retrieves them from their holsters. "These," she murmurs, holding their weight in her hands. They're heavier than her red knives, and thicker, too, but she'll certainly be able to inflict a vast amount of pain upon an opponent with them. She looks up to Seokga. "I'll get these."

The fallen god is silent for a moment, watching her—and Hani realizes her mistake.

The Scarlet Fox is known to fight with twin daggers.

Seokga's eyes narrow slightly, and he tilts his head, brows furrowing together in clear suspicion as he observes her, agonizingly silent. Heart in her throat, Hani stares right back at him, jutting out her chin in what she hopes appears as annoyed exasperation.

Hani has always been good at acting. She took classes from Shakespeare himself once in the sixteenth century. She uses those skills now. "Why are you looking at me?" she demands, holding up the knives and leveling the blades at his chest, careful to hold them slightly incorrectly even though it feels like an affront to her dignity. "Do you need proof that I can use them? If so"—she smiles—"take a step forward and I'll show you."

Seokga blinks at the awkward form of her hands around the hilts, enough to signify some talent with them, but not mastery, and the moment of suspicion is gone. Twin daggers are a common enough weapon, and there are more gumiho acquainted with them than one might think, inspired—maybe subconsciously—by the legendary Scarlet Fox, the most famous gumiho to have ever existed. Seokga probably thinks she picked up the knives for a similar reason. He glowers. "Hurry and buy them. We have somewhere to be."

"What?" Hani demands. "I thought you were buying them for me."

"You're truly unbelievable, fox. Why on Iseung would you think that?"

Hani grimaces. That's a good question. But she just assumed…Sighing, she turns to Jae-jin. "How much?"

The dokkaebi looks apologetic, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "Ah…Since they're handmade…"

That's enough of an answer for Hani. Wincing, she hangs them back on the wall's holster, and turns to Seokga. "I'll use my claws, thanks. Or if we stop at a restaurant, maybe I can grab a steak knife."

"A steak knife," Seokga repeats dubiously. "You'll fight off an eoduksini with a steak knife."

"If you'd rather have me fight with those knives," Hani retorts sweetly, "you could buy them for me. I'll pay you back." A blatant lie, and she's sure that Seokga knows it. But she holds up her right hand and crosses her index and middle finger with a wink. "I swear it."

Seokga does not look convinced at all.

But Hani still walks out of Weapons, War Armor, and Other Wants with a pair of shiny new daggers.