Page 84 of Gumiho Kiss
Without warning, the woman stood and turned Hyun Soo’s way, but when their gazes met, he found himself staring into slanted pupils.
Hyun Soo gasped, shocked at her fox-like appearance.He lowered his eyes to the ground, searching for the gumiho, but the white fox had disappeared, leaving himself and the woman alone in the field.She peered at him curiously, almost as if she were waiting for something.
After a moment, her expression saddened, and she pressed her palm over her mouth.When she moved her hand away, there in her palm rested a small orb, glowing blue in the dying light.
Hyun Soo looked from the orb to the woman, trying to understand.She smiled warmly, holding the orb out like she wanted him to take it.Hyun Soo reached forward, but then he spied the blood at the corners of her mouth.Her smile widened as fangs descended, and her fingernails transformed into claws.
A scream tore from his throat as he awoke, the nightmare ending and reality closing in on him.Pain returned, scorching hot in his chest.It was night, not sunset, and he was not in a field—he lay on a mountain, dying to protect the woman he loved.
But if he was dying, why was the pain fading?Instead of growing weaker, energy began coursing through him, spreading from his stomach toward his extremities.Hyun Soo felt new and whole, ready to fight off a hundred foes without even breaking a sweat.
What was happening?
A canopy of leaves hung above him.He’d been just outside the fortress when he’d passed out.How had he wound up in the forest?He pushed himself into a sitting position, trying to get his bearings.
Chin Sun sat beside him, mask at her neck and hands over her face as tears flowed down her cheeks.A sword lay on the ground nearby, covered in blood.Dol Sam’s sword?He glanced down at his chest, expecting to see a hwando sticking out but finding only torn fabric.
“Chin Sun?”
She gasped, countenance going from stricken to elated in half a second.She threw her arms around his neck, nearly knocking him off balance.The sweet scent of flowers tickled his nose as his companion sobbed against his chest, dampening his hanbok with her tears.“It worked.You’re all right.”
Faint alarm bells rang in his mind, but there were other matters to attend to first.He gently pried Chin Sun off him and scanned their periphery.Empty forest in all directions.“Are we safe?”
She nodded.“Yeh.There’s no need to worry.”
“How did we get here?”
Chin Sun paled.“I ...carried you.”
Her answer was so ridiculous Hyun Soo almost laughed, yet something about the way she dropped her gaze and started fingering her jeogori gave him pause.“You’re serious.”When she didn’t say anything, he pressed on.“But that’s impossible, Chin Sun.There’s no way you could carry me so far.I can’t even see the fortress.How could you?—”
Dread rose in his gut, and though he couldn’t quite pinpoint what he was so afraid of, it was almost strong enough to stop him from asking his next question.Almost.
“What are you hiding from me?”
Chin Sun went completely still, as if all the life had been sucked out of her.She didn’t speak for so long, he started to reach for her hand.
When she lifted her gaze, his hand froze mid-air.The shame in her eyes was raw, palpable, and suddenly Hyun Soo couldn’t breathe.A single tear slid down her cheek.
“I’m sorry, Hyun Soo.”
She opened her mouth, revealing a small blue bead inside.
Chapter31
The Monster
At first, Hyun Soo didn’t understand what he was looking at, but then bewilderment gave way to clarity.That wasn’t just any bead.That was a fox bead.A gumiho’s bead.But that meant?—
He lurched backward, everything he’d thought he’d known collapsing in the blink of an eye.Lee Chin Sun, the woman he’d fought his dearest friend for, was ...was ...
Chin Sun’s expression withered at his retreat, but she didn’t speak, didn’t move, just waited.Watching with those honey-brown eyes that sent his blood racing even as the hairs on his arms stood on end.
He swallowed thickly, trying to wrap his head around it.He’d seen a gumiho earlier and written it off as the hallucination of a dying man.But it had been her?
Hyun Soo couldn’t believe it.HeknewChin Sun.Loved her.Didn’t he?
“The gumiho who attacked Dol Sam—that was ...?”He trailed off, the rest of his question dying in his throat.
