c017

If the word green had a photograph next to it in the dictionary, Hani is certain that the photo would be of Maengjongjuk Forest.

The bamboo park is teeming with greenery: looming jade trees, thick emerald grass, shrubbery of the deepest olive, and a brilliant, bright green moss that creeps along the cobblestoned path leading toward the park's entrance—a humongous, faux-bamboo archway standing before the wooden building in which tickets can be bought. The real bamboo is not yet visible, undoubtedly located deeper within the park.

Hani hitches her tote bag higher up on her shoulder as she and Seokga pass through the archway. Her new daggers are safely hidden inside, ready to be whipped out at the first sign of an approaching demon.

The line for tickets is mercifully short. The woman at the desk looks bored as Seokga and Hani step forward—Hani with a polite smile, Seokga with an impatient frown. The woman gives Hani a cursory glance up and down before doing the same to Seokga.

"Two teenagers?" she asks, riffling through a stack of rectangular tickets. "That will be three thousand won each."

Seokga stiffens, clearly insulted at being mistaken for a teenager. But Hani jabs her elbow into his side, and mutters under her breath, "What she's supposed to say, tickets for two immortal beings? We look like young twenty-somethings who still get carded at bars. Don't pout," she croons as he seethes. "At least we'll never get wrinkles."

Reluctantly, Seokga hands the woman his credit card. A moment later, Hani and Seokga are showing the tickets to a cheerful security man guarding the path leading to a small outdoor plaza, in which are restrooms, signs displaying maps, and various entrances to paths leading into the towering bamboo forests.

Hani makes her way to one of the maps, Seokga close on her tail. "Do you think we should ask for directions to the hidden village?"

Seokga shakes his head. "They don't want people going off the tracks. They wouldn't tell us."

Hani sighs, eyeing the map with a fair amount of apprehension. There are at least four trails, all snaking their way through various points of the forest—north, south, east, and west. "Where do you think the village is?"

As Seokga leans over her shoulder to scan the map, Hani seriously considers ramming herself backward in order to send him stumbling, but decides against it. As miffed as she might be with the fallen god, they are a team now. A team with one goal: to find Choi Ji-ah.

Seokga traces the north trail with a slender finger, which eventually slides away onto a dense area of bamboo forest away from the path. "Here."

"How do you know?"

"I don't." Seokga shrugs, stepping away. "But it seems as good a place to start as any."

Hani starts to move, but her eye is caught on a small icon of a panda bear near the south trail. Pandas! Oh, Hani loves pandas. "Let's find Ji-ah quickly," Hani says over her shoulder, starting toward the north trail, "so I can go and see the bears."

Four hours later and drenched in sweat, Choi Ji-ah and the hidden village are still nowhere to be found, and Hani no longer has the desire to see the panda bears. She just wants to go home.

Slumped against a towering bamboo shoot's stalk, Hani glares at Seokga. North, west, east, south…They have traipsed through the entire forest to no avail. There is no village, none at all. Hani has decided that this village does not exist, that Kim Sora has sent them on a wild-goose chase.

Sweat sticks to the nape of her neck as the midday sun blazes in the sky above. She can barely feel her legs anymore after their four-hour hike through the unpathed forest. "You," Hani rasps to Seokga, who is leaning heavily against the bamboo shoot opposite her. His face shines with sweat and is streaked with dirt from when he tripped over a loose rock earlier. Hani laughed herself hoarse at the sight of the god hitting the ground, proclaiming something about karma. That event now seems like a lifetime ago—many, many lifetimes ago. "You," Hani repeats. "Give me the water." Seokga holds their last remaining bottle of water in his hands, bought two hours ago when they'd returned to the plaza, determined to once again analyze the map. There is only a sip or two left—and Hani plans to claim those two sips as her own.

He glowers at her. "I'm still drinking it."

"Seokga," Hani rasps, "give me the water. Please." Her mouth is on fire, her tongue made from sandpaper. Every breath is sharp against the back of her throat. "Please," she repeats, her head lolling back to rest on the stalk. She stares up at the towering bamboo shoots as they stretch toward the sky, her muscles aching with exhaustion.

Her vision is soon blocked by Seokga's frowning, dirtied face as it peers down at her. "Don't pass out, fox. We still need to find Ji-ah."

"I know," she grouses, snatching the bottle of water from his hand. The two sips of water trickle into her mouth, lukewarm and doing little to assuage the terrible parchedness. "Help me up," she demands, reaching out her hands.

Seokga stares at them in clear disgust. "Get up on your own."

Irritation heats Hani's blood, and her fox bead flares within her chest, sending a desire to hurt, to kill, through her body. Perhaps it's the heat, perhaps it's her exhaustion, perhaps it's the fact that they still haven't found Ji-ah…But whatever the case, Hani clambers to her feet, anger speeding her heartbeat to a horribly fast tempo. "Why," she demands, "do you need to be such a dick all the time?"

She watches through twitching eyes as Seokga blinks. As her words truly settle into him. As his face flushes a furious red, as he bares his teeth and growls, "Do you not know to whom you speak, fox?" That last word, fox, is spat with such hatred…such superiority, that Hani glowers back at him.

"Certainly not a god," she retorts, each word a bullet.

"You—" A vein bulges in Seokga's forehead. "You—"

"You're a dick, all the time," Hani pants, quivering in fatigue and anger. The words spill out of her, bursting past her lips like a torrent of bullets. "You are. And I'm so fuckingsick of it—"

His eyes narrow to slits. "I suggest that you stop talking," he hisses with a terrible coldness. But Hani plows on.

"Do you remember when you came to the Creature Café for the first time? You ordered an iced coffee with one cream and one sugar and I gave it to you! But then you announced that I'd added in two sugars, and when I disagreed, you asked me to call my boss and you told her I should be fired on account of being inept at making coffee." Hani jabs a finger into his chest. "Fucking fired." The memory heats her blood to a near boil. She doubts that he even remembers that day, even remembers how he smiled that cold, conceited smile down at her as he uttered those despicable words. How he managed to get a full refund for a drink that had been made in compliance to his exact order.

Seokga is silent, his expression inscrutable. But he's breathing heavily, his cane tight in his hand, his gaze sparking with sheer hatred.

"You treat the creatures of Iseung like they're nothing. Nobody. I've seen how you speak to Jae-jin. Dok-hyun, too, before we even suspected him! And Euna! Telling her about the seven hells right before she's sent down to Jeoseung? You can't use people as your personal punching bags just because your miserable attempt at a coup failed—"

Those words unleash him. Hani barely has time to blink before Seokga's hands are tight on her shoulders, his voice near guttural as he growls, "Do not speak of my story."

At his touch, something unleashes within Hani—something vicious and violent and feral. She snarls, grabbing his shoulders, and shoves him backward. He stumbles and she stalks forward, her body acting without her mind, her fist rearing back…

Seokga snarls and dives for her waist, aiming, no doubt, to tackle her to the ground. Hani curses in surprise and shifts as he gets close, but her feet stumble and—shit.

Hani's arms wrap around Seokga's back as he knocks her to the ground, his body hitting hers with enough force that she sees stars—but her slight stumble earlier has sent her moving, and Seokga's attack only propels her farther. Her arms clutching Seokga tight to her, Hani shrieks right into his ear in surprise and pain as they begin to roll, crashing through the foliage and shooting down a particularly large slope. Seokga is screaming, too—screaming in pure rage as they roll down, down, down, flying through bushes and hitting their backs on hard rocks, bouncing off bamboo shoots with heavy thuds. In a blur of speed, Seokga is on top of Hani, his cane flying out of his grip—and then Hani is on top of Seokga, a shriek bursting from her lips as the wind is knocked out of her, as they tumble over each other and crash through the forest.

It is only when the slope gives way to flat ground that they eventually roll to a stop. Seokga is limp atop of Hani, his head pressed against hers, his eyes closed. Hani glowers up at him, blood trickling from her mouth thanks to a particularly nasty whump from a very large rock. Is he unconscious?

"You fucking asshole," she croaks into his ear, just to check.

His eyes fly open and he stares down at her, panting. "You—"

"Get off," she moans, smacking his back. "Get off, get off, get off." Gods, he's heavy. Seokga rolls from her with a groan, lying on his back next to her and futilely reaching for his cane that lays a few feet away.

"I hate you," he whispers.

But Hani is already pulling herself up with difficulty, brushing off the dirt, twigs, and leaves riddling her body from their tumble. Tearing her glare away from the literally fallen god, she takes in their new surroundings—and freezes.

They are in the middle of a circle of seven traditional Korean chogajips, wooden houses with thatched roofs.

The village.

Hani and Seokga have found the abandoned village.

"Seokga," Hani says, glancing back down at the god who once again looks unconscious. "Seokga." She prods him with her foot. When he doesn't stir, she kicks him in the side. Hard. "Seokga."

Choi Ji-ah is here, somewhere. She's sure of it.

Groaning, Seokga sits up, massaging his head and collecting his cane. "What?"

"We found it. We found the village." Hani grins—not at Seokga, but at the homes in one of which she's sure Ji-ah hides. "We can find—"

An unnatural growl, wet and deep, resounds from a point just behind Hani…who goes very, very still, the hairs on the back of her neck rising in terror.

Seokga is staring at a spot just behind her shoulder. "Hani," he says under his breath, "don't move."

It's the eoduksini. Hani is sure of it. It's found them and she's going to die. It wasn't Dok-hyun, after all, it was somebody else, and it was one step ahead of them the whole time. A cold sweat trickles down her neck. She is going to rest lifeless on Dok-hyun's examination table, bulging with black veins, her heart ripped out.

Great. Great.

There's a soft snap as Seokga's cane transforms into a sword of pure silver, blinding and bright.

Hani can't take it anymore. Jaw clenched, she whips around, unsheathing her claws with sharp snicks.

Nothing meets her eye.

There is nothing there.

But then that awful growl sounds again, and Hani moves her gaze downward.

There, glowering up at her through black eyes, is a herd of fat, salivating children who are no taller than her knees—but twice as wide as both her legs combined.

For a moment, the forest is comedically silent save for the chirping of a single, faraway locust.

Hani chooses to break that silence. "What the fuck?"

The children smile, revealing pike's teeth and black, wizened tongues that drip with yellow saliva. Their skin is pallid, bulging from their bodies, as if they recently gorged themselves to the point of near-eruption. Their bare feet scuffle in the dirt as they form a circle around Hani and Seokga, those unnatural growls escaping from their chapped lips.

Hani looks to Seokga in a strange mixture of amusement, dismay, and terror.

Seokga flips his sword in his hand, scanning the circle of children. "Baegopeun gwisin," he mutters, slowly moving his way to Hani, so they stand back-to-back. He limps slightly without the help of his walking stick, but his eyes blaze with a self-assurance so potent that Hani is surprised that the children encircling them do not flee. They are doing little but growling, glowering at them through pouchy eyes. "Hungry ghosts. Gwisin. Unrulies. Ji-ah must have brought food with her this time. They've smelled it—and her." A baegopeun gwisin lunges for Hani's ankle, its teeth bared. She kicks it aside. The ring of baegopeun gwisin hiss in outrage and begin to close in on the god and the gumiho. Damn it. If the hungry ghosts have already gotten to Ji-ah, there's probably not much left of the girl to find.

"Do we kill them?" Hani asks, reaching into her tote bag and withdrawing the daggers, shaking off their sheaths. She doesn't want to dirty her treasured claws with the salivating children's flesh. "All of them?" Her plan of ruining Seokga's efforts to add more Unrulies to his ledger has crumbled before her eyes with the emergence of these…things.

"What do you think?" Seokga demands. "Of course we kill them."

"They look like children!"

"Trust me, they're not. Given the chance, they'll eat you, bones and all. Hair, too." Seokga scoffs in revulsion. "Just kill them and be done with it," he snaps over his shoulder.

Grimly, Hani twirls her daggers in her hands. "Fine."

"Fine," Seokga retorts icily.

"Fine," she snarls, and strikes.

Bending low in order to reach them, she slashes at the hungry ghosts, ripping through their pudgy bodies with her daggers and lurching out of the way of their gnashing teeth. She holds herself back, though, lest Seokga see she has mastered the daggers, after all. It's an effort to restrain herself, but she does.

As her blades tear through the gwisin, they crumble to ash, carried away into the depths of the forest by a stray wind. Hani is dimly aware of Seokga working his way through a cluster of snarling baegopeun gwisin with the lethal grace and deadly agility of a viper.

Hani yelps in pain as a baegopeun gwisin sinks its teeth into her left calf, biting deep. Holding herself back in combat has had an agonizing consequence, and she is unspeakably furious with herself for having sparked the hunt for the Scarlet Fox in the first place.

Seokga whirls toward her, sword raised, eyes going straight to her ankle. Hani is slashing at the gwisin desperately, but the damned Unruly holds tight and refuses to let go of her leg or crumble to ash. She shakes her leg frantically, but the fat ghost holds true. Her leg is on fire. "Seokga." Rivulets of blood run down her skin, thick and warm and red.

"He likes you." Seokga smirks, even as he kicks aside a growling ghost and drives his blade into another's chest. "It seems he's especially fond of your leg."

"Get it off," Hani pleads, panicking from pain. "Get it off."

"Magic word?" Seokga beheads three baegopeun gwisin in a singular stroke.

"Now,"Hani shrieks, clumsily dispatching two more baegopeun gwisin as they attempt to jump onto her shoulders. They turn to ash mid-jump and disappear. To her surprise, there are no more baegopeun gwisin left—save for the one currently eating her leg.

And she's in agony. Its fangs are practically rows of small knives…small knives that are embedded in her flesh.

Ouch.

Ouch, ouch, ouchouchouch.

Seokga strolls over to Hani, a too-pleasant smile on his lips as he looks down at the state of her calf. "I'll get it off," he purrs, "once you apologize."

"Apologize?" she pants in disbelief. "Apologize?"

"Yes," he replies, a wicked glitter in his glare. "I'm sure you're familiar with the action. You apologized beautifully in your bedroom. What was that word you used? It begins with an ‘s'…"

This bastard."I have nothing to say sorry for," she pants. "Nothing." He's the one who tackled her, after all. He's the one who started their entire feud, trying to get her fired.

Seokga sighs. "So be it."

And he turns away.

Grimacing, Hani slashes at the baegopeun gwisin again to no avail. Its teeth sink deeper, and a noise of strangled pain escapes Hani's lips.

At the noise, Seokga turns, his jaw set. With a swift, sharp motion, he beheads the baegopeun gwisin, his blade just nicking Hani's knee.

The last hungry ghost turns to ash in the wind.

Molten fire peels up Hani's leg, the deep bite marks burning relentlessly. She sucks in an agonized breath and stumbles to a nearby shoot of bamboo, leaning against it for support as her left leg threatens to give way, her entire body shaking with exhaustion.

Seokga's mouth is a hard line of what almost seems like concern as he strides to her side, his sword reverting back to a cane with another soft snap. "Hani."

"My leg," she gasps. "I need to bind it." Because blood is leaking out of those bite marks and dripping onto the soil below. Hani grabs the hem of her sweater, aiming to pull her top over her head to rip it up and use it as a bandage. Seokga makes a small noise of incredulity, and too late, Hani realizes that she's just flashed Seokga with a close-up view of her incredibly lacy black bra. She scowls, continuing to tug the sweater over her head. It's a rather large, knitted thing, and she's drowning in its fabric. "Don't tell me that in all of your immortal years, you've never seen a bra before." Cool air nips at her sweat-soaked skin as she finally breaks free.

Seokga mutters something in obvious vexation before placing a hand on Hani's arm, stopping her with her shirt halfway off. "You can't walk around like that." His green eyes bore into hers, as if he is trying very, very hard not to look down at her breasts.

"I can't walk around with an injured leg, either, Seokga," she snaps back. "I really don't have much choice in the matter."

She watches as his jaw works back and forth. "Put your shirt back on," he grumbles before reaching for the buttons of his own tunic, a silken black long-sleeved shirt that looks as if it costs more than three months of Hani's rent combined. She watches in sheer disbelief as he unbuttons his shirt, revealing…Oh. Her mouth dries out slightly.

Although the fallen god is slender, Seokga's chest is tan and toned, muscles rippling as he shrugs off his tunic and bunches up the fabric before tossing it to her. "Use this," he says gruffly.

Hani gapes in grudging gratefulness.

And admiration.

Lotsof admiration.

His abs are hard and chiseled, golden-beige skin covered in a thin sheen of sweat. At the waistband of his pants, a deep V-line appears and Hani swallows hard as her eyes snag on those two damned lines. She slowly becomes aware that her breathing has quickened—that her cheeks are suddenly warm and red, that no matter how hard she tries, she cannot look away from the fallen god.

And he's looking at her, too—looking at her in a way that is halfway between smug and annoyed and…something else as his gaze flickers from her face to her mouth. Hani realizes that she's biting her bottom lip, and quickly arranges her face into an exasperated, bored expression. And just like that, the moment is broken.

Thank fuck.

Seokga scowls, glancing away—but she can almost swear that his cheeks are tinged pink. "Bind your leg. I'll search the village for Ji-ah. If the baegopeun gwisin didn't eat her, she'll be here. Hopefully," he adds in a mutter, already stalking off, the corded muscles in his back rippling with every movement. Hani looks away, her own cheeks burning.

He's average,she tells herself as she rips up his tunic into thin strips. Average. Not attractive at all. I hate him.

Hani hisses through her teeth as she ties the strips of fabric around her calf with bloodied fingers. Seokga is nowhere to be seen, having ducked into a chogajip in search of their witness.

"Baegopeun gwisin," Hani grumbles to herself. "Damn them to Jeoseung." Finished binding, she unsteadily rises to her feet, and limps over to the circle of chogajips. "Choi Ji-ah?" she calls. "Are you here?"

Seokga ducks out of one of the homes and shakes his head. "Perhaps she's in—"

"Wait." Hani cocks her head, her ears picking up on a muffled sound. Quiet sobbing. "Over here," Hani whispers, following the noise. It takes her past the chogajips and back into the bamboo forest. Her leg screams in protest as she hobbles over to a small ridge in the ground, but she ignores it, peering over the crest of dirt and growth to find—"Ji-ah," she says kindly to the small figure curled up in the undergrowth. "It's okay. You're safe now."

Ji-ah lifts a tearstained face to Hani and Seokga and blanches in terror. "Who—who are you?" she wails, scrambling backward, clods of dirt flying upward in her wake. "What do you want?"

"We want to help you," Hani says as gently as she can. "We just want to help you, Ji-ah. We're not here to hurt you."

"Detective Seokga. This is my assistant, Kim Hani." Seokga inclines his head. "Kim Sora sent us."

"Sora?" Ji-ah's eyes widen. "You—you know Sora?"

"We do," Hani says, fighting to stay upright against the pain ravaging her leg. She feels Seokga's gaze snap to her, narrow with worry. To her surprise, he steps closer to her—just slightly. An offer, should she accept. Gritting her teeth, Hani leans against his bare shoulder. He tenses in what's either shock or disgust, but a moment later—to her surprise—she feels the god relax beneath her. "And we also know why you left New Sinsi. We promise that you're safe with us now. No harm will come to you."

"You know?" Ji-ah whispers in horror. "You know…"

"You're no safer in this forest than in the city," Seokga says grimly. "Those ghosts—the baegopeun gwisin—there may be more of them. We do not have time to loiter around. Come with us, Choi Ji-ah, or remain here. It's your choice."

Ji-ah's eyes dart from Seokga to Hani, and then back again. "You know Sora?" she asks again, her voice tremulous and ridden with tears. "Kim Sora?"

"We do." Hani reaches out her hand to the girl. "Take my hand, Ji-ah. You're safe now. I promise."

Ji-ah's face crumples in relief as her hand meets Hani's.

"You're safe now," Hani repeats, hoping desperately that she speaks the truth.