‘What is this?’
A thick bracelet was locked around her wrist, with him holding the chain attached to it.
“I wanted to put it around your neck, but that felt too inhumane. It’s not like I’m a hunter or someone who’s trying to kidnap you.”
Seeing her shocked face, he smiled.
“We’re not like that.”
‘Then what are ‘we’?’
It seemed like any kind of reasoning or proper communication weren’t an option anymore.
‘When did he become like this? He used to be a sweet little boy... A boy who did whatever I told him to do....’
Was it when he grew tall enough to reach the ceiling? Or when his hands and feet became larger than his head?
“Let’s go home, Sohwa. I’ll get the orb before your next heat cycle, I promise.”
He spoke of the orb that she didn’t even want, as he gently draped an arm around her shoulder and started walking.
“Plums, apricots, cherries, frogs, and sparrows... I’ll eat only what you like. I’ll do all the cleaning and laundry. Well, I already did, but I’ll do even better. So don’t think about abandoning me, okay?”
“....”
“See? You’re not answering me again. If you keep on ignoring me, then I have no other option but to tie you up at home.”
“You don’t have any rights to do t-....”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make you happier than any other fox in this entire world. I promise.”
Cutting her off, he suddenly knelt on the ground to prove his resolve, facing her.
“You’re all I have, Sohwa. You know that.”
Holding her hands to his face, he began to rub his face against her lower belly like an animal.
“Please don’t abandon me... I’ll be good. I promise. Please live with me.”
Despite his desperate plea, he immediately changed his gaze to something fierce when Sohwa didn’t respond.
His brown eyes turned golden.
“You’re not leaving, right?”
“....”
The tiger’s gaze was terrifying, made even more so by the darkness of the night.
Sohwa finally nodded slightly under his threat. He smiled brightly and hugged her tightly.
“Thank you. My life means nothing without you, Sohwa. If you leave me, I might as well just die.”
While it may sound romantic on the surface, It sounded like a threat to Sohwa saying ‘If you leave, I’m going to devour you alive and then die myself.’
Sohwa swallowed dryly.
“We’ll have a baby and live happily ever after. Forever.”
“....”
The words from a phony monk that she once heard, “A dreadful karma has clung to you,” echoed in her mind like a prophecy.
Chatper 2. Cuteness Kills
Sohwa was born as a fox with a white body and a black tail. There were exactly eleven siblings. That’s because they were born as ’purebred conceptions’ in animal form rather than human.
However, Sohwa’s parents couldn’t take care of all eleven children. Unlike her family of red foxes, Sohwa, with her small size and odd fur color, had to leave the pack’s territory when she was young.
At the time, she couldn’t understand why she had to leave her beloved parents and mischievous siblings. As she grew, Sohwa slowly realized that she had been abandoned by the pack.
She wandered alone until she settled in Mount Yeehwang. There was a human village far below the mountain, but it was a quiet place with few visitors except for an old gravekeeper.
She survived on fruits, bird eggs, and frogs.
One day, a golden eagle ominously flew through the clear morning sky.
And on that day, Sohwa discovered a dying black animal.
It had a hint of brown in its fur, and it looked less cute than a cat but still far too cute to be a fierce beast.
“This must be a cub of a wildcat, I’m sure of it.”
Sohwa had never seen a tiger in person and had never heard of tigers in Mount Yeehwang, so she thought the animal with the symbol of a king (王) on its forehead was just a leopard cat. Its paws were unusually large, but what was more striking was its color.
“But... I’ve never heard of a black wildcat....”
‘Well, just as there are rare whitish-red foxes like me, there could be black wildcats.’
“You must be a mutant too, poor thing.”
Humans often take in cute animals as pets. It seemed that this one was raised as a pet for a few years because it was pretty, then abandoned when it grew up.
After all, black animals were often considered ominous by humans.
Seeing it covered in blood and unable to open its eyes, Sohwa felt pity for it, even though it was only an animal, not a half-beast.
So, she brought it home without much thought. She decided to take care of it until it recovered.
Gently washing off the blood, she found a wound near its navel. There was even something dangling around the bellybutton, which was hard to tell if it was a piece of flesh falling off due to an injury or a blood vessel.
Thankfully, it fell off naturally after a few days, forming a scab, but the animal still wasn’t fully conscious and slept all day long.
“Judging by its size, it seems like an adult....”
Although she found a lot of things strange about this mysterious creature, she continued to take care of it for a few more days, and the animal finally opened its eyes.
“Golden eyes. How cute.”
Having never been a mother and never taken care of a baby, Sohwa thought it was just a sick wildcat, not knowing it was a tiger cub.