c027

Two gumiho, a jeoseung saja, and a fallen god all sit around a table in an empty café.

One gumiho is glaring at the other.

One gumiho is studiously stirring her iced coffee and avoiding the older gumiho's suspicious stare while also sweating profusely and flinching every time the god moves.

Onegumiho is wondering who the fuck killed three NSU boys because it damn sure wasn't her.

The god and the jeoseung saja are sitting in awkward silence, eyeing the two gumiho with equally wary expressions.

Moments tick by.

Minutes.

"Hani," Somi says tremulously, looking up from her swirling coffee as the ice rattles against the glass cup, "how…was Geoje?" She is flushed, her cheeks a bright, bright pink and her eyes sparkling in a way that is almost feverish. Her short curly hair is wild and untamed, and her Creature Café apron is stained with hot chocolate. Her hands are shaking. They were trembling violently when they made Hani's drink.

Hani clears her throat. If her suspicion is correct—and she hopes that it is not—their two other companions cannot be alerted to the…possibility. "It was a mess," she admits honestly. "While we were gone, the eoduksini attacked the precinct."

"R-right," says Somi. "I heard about that."

"And then a fairy made Seokga and me kiss." She darts a glance over to the god. Seokga looks incredibly pleased with himself.

Somi's eyes bulge out of her head in surprise. "What?" She had been in the process of raising her drink to her lips, but at Hani's words, her hand seems to have a spasm. Coffee spills all over her lap, and Hani winces.

The young gumiho has the Jitters.

Seokga is watching Somi coolly, sipping at his own coffee. Unsurprisingly, the fallen god does not bother to help. But Hyun-tae leaps to his feet.

"Ms. Somi," Hyun-tae says in alarm. "Do you need napkins?" His cheeks flush as Somi spares him a glance. "Of course you do. I will go and get them for you. Stay there!" He scampers off, hasty in his desire to help.

If Somi is still unnerved by the jeoseung saja's presence, she gives no indication. "The part-timer is very useful," she says to Hani, those feverish eyes laughing while still wide with fear. "He does all of my work for me, did you know that, unnie? All I have to do is point, and he takes out the trash, cleans the floors, wipes the tables…And all for part-time pay!"

"It's clear that he's smitten with you," Hani replies, careful to keep her voice smooth and level, even as she watches those shaking hands. "You have him wrapped around your little finger, Somi."

"Don't I?" Somi gives a wavering little smile. Hani's eyes flick to her too-red lips. Somi hardly ever wears lipstick. "Minji loves him." Having sensed Hani's scrutiny, Somi presses her lips together and stares at the floor.

"I bet she does." The jeoseung saja is just Minji's type for a model employee. Eager to work, professional, polite. Everything that Hani is not.

Hani finds that she does not quite miss working at the Creature Café.

She watches as Hyun-tae returns with a roll of paper towels and hands them to Somi with a deference usually reserved for the occasions where waiters serve royalty.

"Why are you here so early, though?" Somi asks, mopping her jeans with a wad of paper towels. "Did something happen this morning with…the eoduksini?"

Hani watches her reaction carefully, even as she phrases the answer in a way that won't startle Somi enough to slip up. "There was a situation at New Sinsi University—similar to the situation I told you about a few nights ago."

Somi is silent, suddenly intensely interested in scrubbing her pants. To her credit, her expression is almost nonchalant.

Almost.

"Three men missing souls and livers." Seokga has looked up from his coffee, an expression of great annoyance crossing his face. Somi has turned a concerning shade of green and gray all at once. "The Scarlet Fox," he says to Hani, who has begun to wonder how suspicious it would be if she were to grab Somi and run, "may have to be lured out like the eoduksini. If the new footage Shim recovers is useless, we'll…" He continues speaking, his tone clipped and cold—furious at their lack of leads—but Hani doesn't hear. She is watching Somi very, very carefully.

Kim Hani did not kill those men last night.

Kim Hani was lying in Seokga's apartment, claws unsheathed, half-expecting an eoduksini to leap out of the shadows for the entirety of the night and possibly also fantasizing about a certain trickster god.

But Somi…

Somi has the Jitters.

It is something that happens to baby gumiho when they eat too much, too quickly. And is it a coincidence that Hani gave Somi her first taste of liver days before last night's murder? Is it a coincidence that their souls were stolen days after Hani explained to Somi how it is done? She hopes, desperately, that it is so. Because Seokga believes that the Scarlet Fox is behind all five murders. And if the footage reveals Somi as the perpetrator of last night's events…Fuck. Fuck.

This is Hani's fault. She has corrupted Somi—na?ve, innocent Somi. And she has led the wolves right to her door. At the university, she was plagued by a suspicion, but a rational part of her whispered that Somi couldn't possibly have killed the three boys. Somi, who had been a nervous wreck after consuming those livers. Somi, who'd never killed a human in her life.

But now, taking in Somi's glazed eyes, her pink skin, her trembling fingers…

Hani remembers the dark curiosity lurking underneath Somi's otherwise innocent visage. She should have known better. Should have been wiser in her influence. Although she has gotten away with murder for centuries, Somi has not. And that is on her. The fact that devouring souls and eating livers is now illegal is also on her.

Guilt twists Hani's stomach into hundreds of tight knots.

The footage will show Somi as the perpetrator of the crime. She will be marked as the Scarlet Fox, hunted down, and killed.

Unless Hani intervenes.

Unless she finds a way to delete the footage.

Sweat dribbles down Hani's neck as Somi meets her eyes. The baby gumiho is pale, the blood drained from her face even. Her words, when they come out, are quiet and carried on only a little thread of a voice. "Hani," Somi says, standing abruptly, "I've been meaning to ask. There's a…problem with the ice machine in the back. I know you don't work here anymore, but…"

"I'll check it out with you," says Hani as she stands. She casts a quick glance at Seokga, who is drinking his iced coffee at an alarming speed. "I'll be back."

He waves her off, still deep in his own musings.

Hani follows Somi into the back kitchen, hidden behind the café's counter, and shuts the steel door behind her. She presses her back against the door, just to be sure, and stares at Somi, who is trembling near the café's large freezer.

"It was you, wasn't it?" Hani asks softly. Gently. "Somi-ah, did you kill those men?"

Somi's eyes swim with tears, and her bottom lip trembles rapidly. "I-I didn't mean to, Hani," she rasps. "But I…Ever since I tried the livers, I've been…I've been craving it. The rush. And I-I tried to tell you, but you were heading out to Geoje, and I didn't want to call again and bother you…And then the last time we talked, I was g-going to tell you, but you hung up…"

Guilt slices into Hani's heart as she remembers the discussion that she had with Somi before climbing into Seokga's car. "Wait. I-I have a question…" Somi had whispered into the phone. "…I've been feeling odd…"

But Hani hadn't been listening.

"I tried to ignore it," Somi continues, blinking back tears even as a stray one trickles down her cheek. "I came to work from morning to evening, and did my very best. I even got along with the jeoseung saja part-timer. I made the coffees, I wiped the counters, I was a good worker. I was fine for…for a while. Even though I was c-craving it so bad that I couldn't even see straight, I was fine. But then, last night…"

"The Cravings got worse," Hani guessed. Gods. This is—this is all on Hani.

The Cravings occur when a gumiho has a hypersensitivity to the rush of power that comes with consuming livers, consuming souls. Not all gumiho have this hypersensitivity, but it's not extraordinarily uncommon. The Cravings can be sated—by consuming more livers, more souls—but the urge will come back eventually, clouding the gumiho's mind with bloodlust until they kill and eat again, starting the cycle all over. That day after Somi consumed those two livers, she was bouncing off the walls. Hani chalked it up to the fact that she had never had liver before, but Somi's trembling hands tell a different story. Somi is hypersensitive to power. And she is still Craving.

Somi nods, and the dam finally breaks. She dissolves into tears. "I killed those men," she sobs. "I killed them, and I liked it."

"Somi," Hani murmurs, peeling herself from the door and enveloping her friend in a comforting embrace. "You have nothing to feel bad about, Somi. Gumiho are meant, genetically, to kill. You haven't done anything wrong, not in my eyes."

"But they think we're the Scarlet Fox," Somi whispers into her shoulder. "They're going to kill me. Hani, I'm scared."

"No," Hani says firmly, "no. They're not going to touch you." She pulls away, holding Somi by the shoulders. "I won't let that happen."

"What are you going to do?" asks Somi waveringly.

"I'm going to teach you all the tricks in the book. So you can feed and never get caught. But for now…" She leans in to whisper in Somi's ear. "I need you to listen very, very closely."

Hani has made the ingenious realization that Somi will not be on camera if there are no cameras.

She leaves Somi with the god and the jeoseung saja, giving her clear instructions to state that Hani is in the washroom and to keep them busy. She has no doubt that Seokga will stay satisfied if he is given another ginormous iced coffee on the house and knows that Hyun-tae will remain in the café solely for the purpose of spending time with "Ms. Somi."

Hani has at most fifteen minutes to make it to the university and back. Fifteen minutes to destroy the cameras trained on the spot of the crime and the nearby areas, fifteen minutes to leave undetected. Fifteen minutes. With the beginning of morning traffic, stealing Seokga's Jaguar and speeding off won't get her anywhere. But changing into her fox form just might.

In the alleyway of the Creature Café, Hani takes a deep breath and lets the change wash over her. Lets herself transform into a sleek, scarlet fox with nine tails that wave slightly in the wind. Lets herself flex her muscles, reacquainting herself to the fox form, reacquainting herself to the sudden rush of her doubling senses. In her fox form, she is able to hear every whisper of the city within a two-mile radius, smell every scent, see everything with unnatural clarity.

And in her fox form, Hani is very, very fast.

She can only hope that the footage has not yet been reviewed by the haetae. Hani tilts her head, stretches her joints.

Ready, set, go.

Nobody notices the scarlet blur that speeds through the city a moment later, nothing more than a flash of ruby wind. Nobody notices the pounding of paws against the pavement as the nine-tailed fox weaves through pedestrians on the sidewalk, muzzle pulled back in determination.

Nobody notices as Kim Hani runs like she's never run before, set upon fixing her mistake.

I'm sorry, Somi,she thinks as she runs. I'm so sorry.