Four drops of lavender oil fell onto a smooth, white back.
A pair of hands spread the fragrant oil out gently. They wrapped around the shoulders and then circled under the armpits.
First strongly, then weakly and strongly again.
The hands that pressed rhythmically and came down to the waist, climbed up the back again, as if they were performing a dance.
“Ah…”
A drowsy groan echoed down the small hall of the massage room. Just as the person was about to fall asleep, a languid voice broke the silence of the room.
“Wow… You have very strong hands.”
Taking the oil out of the kit, Sua smiled amiably, dropping two more drops on her slender waist.
“Does it hurt? “
“No, it’s really good and relaxing. I’m really glad I could experience such luxury in my life. I really have no luck in winning.”
Even though she put the receipt from the local mart in the event box, she didn’t expect to win. So, she didn’t even look at the catalogue. But when she learned that she had won a full body massage ticket, she suspected it to be voice phishing.
Sua smirked and touched the towel covering her hips.
“I’ll just lower it a little.”
Sua folded the towel to reveal her hip bone and glanced down at the right side of her back.
His eyes became sharp as he carefully looked at the ‘something‘ that became suddenly visible over the hidden part.
It was exactly what he saw in a magazine recently. He would never have been able to see it, if she hadn’t taken a pictorial in a bold dress with high thigh slits.
‘Ah. I’ll be able to check it properly if I lower it a little more.’
With an anxious look, he alternately looked at the woman’s head buried in the bed and the scented candle lit on the upper shelf.
A length of almost 2 centimeters of the sleep inducing candle had quickly burned off.
It was the first time in 100 years of this Myosaeng’s life that he had seen a human not get hypnotized even after exceeding one centimeter. This proved how strong she was. Just by looking at this, isn’t it obvious that she is a special human?
[T/N: Myosaeng is a cat spirit with a human body. Here Sua is a cat spirit in human form. It’s also used to personify cats. ]
However, he couldn’t decide anything until he had carefully checked the complete pattern. Sua carefully massaged her from her back to her shoulders and looked at the woman’s back.
‘Go to sleep. Please sleep.’
He kept on mumbling this in his mind as if he was saying a spell.
His back was tense and occasionally flinched whenever the smooth back made a movement. His shoulders that were reflexively raised, became stiff under gravity. Finally, the smooth back moved rhythmically up and down at a steady speed.
“… Seo Ji-an?”
Only after hearing her even breathing, did the hand that touched the skin slowly fall off.
‘Whoa….’
Sua, who exhaled a nervous breath, pursed his lips tightly and carefully lifted the towel.
Under the disposable underwear provided by the shop for easy massage, a complete dark blue pattern could be seen. He nervously gulped his saliva down his throat. With high expectations, he unknowingly applied a little more strength to the hand grasping the waistband of the underwear.
Sua lowered his body and fixed his gaze at the gap that gradually opened.
‘Just a little bit. Just a little bit more…!’
At that moment, when he saw the curved hips while lifting her underwear, he felt like a pervert.
‘Huh…!’
Sua quickly closed his open mouth. Thump thump thump! His heart was beating like crazy, as if it would leap out of his mouth.
‘Look..look again. Let’s check it out again.’
After repeatedly blinking his eyes and checking several times, Sua suddenly straightened his lowered body.
‘…It’s real. This is real!’
With a couple of steps backward he quickly left the massage room. Sua went straight to the storage room and sat down with his knees bent in the dark corner.
Yoon, who had been dozing with a confused face, looked exactly the same as Sua. “You served Miss Seo Ji-an with the best service. When she wakes up, you just need to finish her makeup well, okay?”
With half-closed eyes, a drowsy, hypnotized sound leaked out of Yoon’s mouth.
“Yes. Just finish… well… if…”
Sua, who had finished his job, hurriedly threw off his black uniform. The face that looked exactly the same as that of Yoon’s, finally regained its original childish and cute appearance in the hazy smoke.
“Oh, my God. It’s real, really…!”
Sua excitedly muttered and hurried out of the shop.
At the same time, the two employees, who were dozing off at the information desk, opened their eyes as if nothing had happened.
* * *
“You insolent woman. How dare you flirt with Min-woo?”
Chwakk
A dizzying frictional sound burst through the TV speakers. Seung-won, who was watching the screen with an expressionless face, frowned. It was as if he had been slapped with water, and his face felt cold.
“Evil minded brutes like you would never achieve anything.”
The woman with a ferocious face clenched her teeth and raised her hand high. It was at that moment, the palm that was cutting through the air was suddenly pulled away.
Tuck-!
The woman’s wrist held in someone else’s hand, filled the big screen.
“What!”
The woman, who looked at the intruder with a hysterical face, suddenly became embarrassed and swallowed her breath.
“Huh! Mi-Minwoo…”
The male protagonist, who appeared like a savior, stared at the woman as if he would tear her to death. “Shin Yuri, what are you doing!”
Along with the roar of an angry young man, suddenly there was a BGM that heightened tension. The screen frantically alternated between the faces of the man and women.
Soon, the faces of two women and a man were captured in a divided scene, and the sponsor’s logo appeared at the bottom.
“…..”
After watching the drama for an hour, Seung-won burst into laughter.
“I really can’t stand it.”
An obvious story, a serious BGM, and a tacky production.
This was why the drama was in the last place in the same-time viewership ratings.
With a sigh, he pointed at the actress who appeared in the preview of the next episode.
“Are you sure it’s that girl?”
She was a supporting actress, playing the role of Shin Yuri, the woman who slapped the female protagonist’s cheek with a ferocious face.
A middle-aged man standing behind his back replied with a voice as gentle as his appearance.
“Yes, I am sure. Sua clearly confirmed the pattern of Hojo.”
Seung-won’s thick eyebrows knitted together.
“How?”
“Eh, this needs a pretty detailed explanation…”
Seung-won raised one hand with an annoyed face.
“Okay. Make it as brief as you can.”
It was a pretty talkative cat. If he starts to explain in ‘detail‘, it would be good for one’s ears to not listen to his details.
“Yes, let me summarize.”
“Ahem,” said Byung-cheon, who coughed to warm up his throat, reported everything with a somewhat embarrassed face.
“I had already made arrangements for her to visit the spa that Sua infiltrated. Sua clearly saw a 15cm diameter pattern on her right back.”
The pattern of Hojo.
The moon, clouds, and stars were overlaid with letters from two thousand years ago, making it look like a butterfly with a fox’s tail.
A special mark indicating that she is the descendant of a ‘Ho-in‘ born between ‘Human’ and ‘Hojo‘, the senior celestial fox spirits.
[T/N: Hojo- Fox spirits who have cultivated for more than a thousand years and are usually called celestial foxes. They are fox spirits with golden fur and nine tails and are said to have the highest rank. They work at the celestial court and guard the Myoilgung, the palace of sun and the Wolgung, the palace of moon.]
It was the only way to save Seung-won who was on the verge of falling into a thousand year fate.
How desperately had he been waiting for the past few hundred years? His men had searched for hundreds of women, but in the end, they only confused the pattern with artificial tattoos and body paints.
Besides, the first few times, he was in a hurry, so he directly touched the women with his hand, only to suffer from excruciating pain for three to four days. It was because of God’s curse, which made pain spread all over a Gumiho’s body even if only the woman’s fingertips were touched.
There were only 150 days to the thousand year fate. Less than half a year was left now.
If a Gumiho does not find the descendant of Ho-in and fails to pass the fox bead, the Gumiho after completing a thousand year life would transform into a monster and would be trapped in the underworld.
After that, another thousand years.
It was more scarier than death to live a terrible life trapped in the hellish darkness.
However, it has been almost 50 years since he gave up searching for the descendants of Ho-in. He did find a descendant of Ho-in, who was said to be the only one left, but later confirmed that the person had passed away.
“It seems at that time that woman abandoned her illegitimate child secretly. And her later generation gave birth to the actress who is now alone. Her mother died shortly after giving birth, and the actress is said to have been brought up by an old woman.”
Anyway, these were all Byung-cheon’s guesses, and there was no way to confirm it with records. It was true that Sua had confirmed the pattern, but they still did not have much expectations. However, there was no way they could also let this go. It was for a greater cause anyway, so there was nothing much to lose in properly checking it out.
‘Okay but….’
Tok, tok.
The fingertips that were carelessly tapping on the armrests of the sofa, lightly scratched the leather. Seung-won gently crumpled his eyebrows.
“Why does it have to be that woman?”
Hearing the honey-like voice, Byung-cheon asked with an anxious face.
“Why don’t you like it?”
After getting up from the sofa, Seung-won sighed as he headed to the table by the window.
“The spirit of this woman is worn-out.”
Byung-cheon looked at the TV screen, where an advertisement was playing.
“The appearance is like that because of her role, but in reality it’s not that much….?”
It was a somewhat unconfident remark. He had also lived for two hundred years, but he still did not have the skill to look through the wonders of the modern cosmetic techniques.
Seung-won snorted as he poured the steaming lotus leaf tea gracefully.
“Have you noticed her for a day or two?”
Byung-cheon’s eyes gleamed under the silver-rimmed glasses. The image of the actress, who raised her eyes fiercely, floated up in his head.
“Hmm. That’s all because of the makeup. Sometimes it changes the whole physiognomy, but normally, it’s a face worth looking at”
Byung-cheon, who took out his cell phone, typed the name of the actress on the portal site.
<Seo Ji-an>
Then he picked the most modest picture and presented it to Seung-won with great care.
“Here, take a look. Isn’t it nice?”
Seung-won picked up a teacup and blew the white steam away. He rolled his eyes and looked into the cell phone.
A face without makeup, a modest hairstyle, and a clear, pure smile.
Although she did her best to imitate a respectable lady, the subtly raised corners of her exhausted eyes could not be concealed.
“Tsk tsk.”
Seung-won clicked his tongue and closed his eyes. Anyway, if she was truly a descendant of Ho-in, he had to keep her by his side. So it was not the right time to be picky about tastes. After taking a sip of tea, Seung-won lowered his cup and raised his dark eyebrows.
“Myo-han.”
It was the real name of the 200-year-old cat spirit. Myo-han, who had the face of the 55-year-old Do Byung-cheon, straightened his spine right away when he heard his owner say his name.
“Yes, Wolho.”
The tip of the long white finger gently rubbed the rim of the cup.
“If this time….”
Wolho’s silver eyes on the face of the 34-year-old Ji Seung-won flashed fiercely at Myo-han.
“I know how to pull your liver out.”
Byung-cheon, who reflectively swallowed his saliva, responded reverently.
“This time it is clear. Yes, of course it is.”
Of course, he did not check the pattern himself, but this time, he was assuring without verifying ….
Seung-won turned his gaze out of the window, pretending not to hear the grumbling sound. With a slightly cooled lotus Ieaf tea in his mouth, he looked at the morning of Seoul from a distance.
The next 150 days.
It was too short of a time for him, who had lived for 999 years. If this was truly his last chance, he couldn’t make any mistakes.
An antique ceramic cup was gently placed on a cup holder with a crescent moon pattern. The enchanting eyes, filled with spirit and elegance, were sharply bent.
“Find out where she is. I have to check it myself.”