It was Dohvi.
He walked slowly toward them, and when his eyes found Sohwa, a warm, wide smile spread across his face.
"I'm back, Sohwa."
The girl's eyes widened with joy.
"**Dohvi!**"
The instant she shouted his name, Daebom leaped so high in surprise that his bag tumbled from his grasp, scattering all the food across the frozen ground. Sohwa stared at the temptingly strewn morsels—the dried frogs, the chestnuts, the precious hawthorn berries—and didn't even notice Daebom transform.
"Uh...?"
The young man vanished without a trace, as if he had never existed. In the blink of an eye, he shifted into a red fox and bolted behind a tree, his fluffy tail swishing frantically to the side.
Sohwa caught sight of that distinctive brush of fur and gasped.
_He called himself a tiger! A **tiger**!_
Daebom was nothing more than a red fox—just like her. How cleverly he had deceived her! It had never once occurred to her that he wasn't some peculiar tiger with unusual eating habits and Buddhist convictions.
She stood there, mouth agape, when suddenly a heavy hand fell on the back of her neck. Dohvi was already very close. Gently, he took Sohwa by the chin and turned her face toward him.
"I said, I'm back."
"Yes, Dohvi." She blinked up at him. "Did you see the first snow?"
Sohwa, beaming with joy, wrapped her arms around his waist. He responded by touching his lips softly to her forehead, then her nose, then each of her cheeks in turn.
"He was very handsome," Dohvi whispered against her skin.
"More beautiful than you?"
When he finally reached her lips, Sohwa anticipated a light, gentle kiss—but the tiger suddenly gripped the back of her head with firm fingers. He jerked her face upward, angling it to his liking.
For the first time outdoors, Dohvi kissed Sohwa with a depraved intensity unlike anything she had experienced before. He sucked on her lips, invaded her mouth with his tongue, explored her greedily. It reminded her of the beginning of their passionate nights—filled with insatiable hunger.
Sohwa tried to push him away, but Dohvi simply lifted her into his arms and continued kissing her. Startled when her feet left the ground, she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck to keep from falling.
Dohvi pressed her back against the hawthorn's rough trunk and molded his entire body against hers. She felt his arousal, hard and insistent, pressing into her stomach.
"Ah...!"
Sohwa punched his shoulder, but his body didn't flinch. Instead, his hand slid beneath her skirt, and in one swift motion, he cupped and squeezed her buttocks.
She jerked as if struck by lightning, but that rough hand didn't let go.
_He's acting strange today—_
The thought barely formed before his fingers pushed her undergarments aside and touched bare skin.
"Mmph!"
He stroked her—still dry—from clitoris to entrance, slow and deliberate. Then, just as suddenly, he released her. As soon as her feet touched solid ground again, Sohwa let out a shaky sigh of relief.
"Ha... ha-ah..."
"If you don't like it, I won't do it again," he said, smiling down at her.
Sohwa looked up in confusion.
"Were you planning to do it right **here**?"
"Yes. But if you don't want to, then I won't."
_Just imagine—he attacked me, but as soon as I made it clear I didn't like it, he stopped immediately._
Sohwa found herself thinking that Dohvi did understand right from wrong after all. He wasn't so terrible. Rather... he was obedient.
Without taking his eyes off Sohwa, he glanced in the direction the red fox had disappeared.
"Did you just meet him?"
Sohwa's face flushed crimson. She and Daebom had been shamelessly bragging to each other, both lying about being tigers. How mortifying! What if Dohvi had heard everything?
"Did you hear... everything we talked about?"
She asked the question carefully, and the corner of Dohvi's mouth curled upward.
"'We'?"
"It's just... at first he mistook me for a tigress, and I didn't have time to correct him."
Dohvi's gaze returned to where the red fox had vanished. The clearing stood empty now, nothing but frost-covered bushes, and he stared at it for a long, silent moment.
"I really thought he was a tiger," Sohwa admitted, her voice small. "He pretended so skillfully that I believed him completely. He deceived me. The fox **fooled** me."
"So that's what you were chatting about so cheerfully."
Finally, Dohvi looked away from the bushes and gently draped his arm around Sohwa's shoulders.
"Shall we go home?"
"Yes, please. After all those scary stories, I don't want to stay here any longer."
"Did my fox hear something frightening?"
They walked together along the narrow mountain path, Dohvi matching her slow pace as they fell into leisurely conversation. The snowflakes had long since ceased swirling; they had melted away without a trace.
"Dohvi, don't go anywhere near Heavenly Gate Mountain. They say a terrible tiger lives there."
"Is that so?"
"Yes! He's so fierce that Death itself passes him by."
"Wow..." Dohvi mused. "What a strange beast."
Sohwa, inspired by his agreeable responses, began to embellish everything she had heard from Daebom about the tiger of Heavenly Gate Mountain.
"They say his body is the size of Mount Taishan! His front paws are bigger than turtle shells, and his claws are terrifying—sharper than human sickles. He has no patience whatsoever, and his rage is **boundless**. So he amuses himself by playing the tyrant of Heavenly Gate, slaughtering innocent animals!"
"I wonder why he has such a terrible temper."
Sohwa suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.
She looked at him with an unusually serious expression and spoke quietly.
"Dohvi... I know you hunt at night. But you shouldn't go anywhere near that mountain."
Dohvi was surprised. "Hunting" was something of a taboo subject between them—she had never brought it up willingly. But now Sohwa had mentioned it herself.
"Do you understand?"
She frowned and shook his hand, as if urging him to answer immediately.
"Did you understand?"
Her touching concern broke something inside Dohvi's chest. But at the same time, he was constantly drawn to tease this kind, naïve little fox. It seemed everyone was right—_I really am a heartless scoundrel._
"What if I meant to say... that we should move there?"
"What? **Why?** Why would you—"
Sohwa's eyes widened in shock. He gently smoothed her disheveled hair and said with theatrical regret:
"There's nothing else for me to eat here, Sohwa. Except... you."
Sohwa staggered, losing her balance. She knew Dohvi was joking, but his words still made her tremble.
"Oh, what should I do... I'll have to walk right into the lair of that terrible beast, all alone..."
But even then, Sohwa didn't say, _"Go by yourself."_ And that was both touching and delightful. Dohvi pulled her close, holding her tightly. He could feel her frightened heart beating wildly against his chest.
"I can't bear this... I can't bear it... Oh, what am I supposed to do..."
_Yes, I must be a terrible person. I don't care that this poor fox is scared—I just want to keep teasing her._
"This is bad," Dohvi sighed with exaggerated concern. "When I cross that tiger's territory, he'll probably come after me to kill me."
"Hee-e-e..." Sohwa inhaled sharply, her face draining of color.
Dohvi looked at her with calm, confident eyes.
"But knowing that you're nearby makes me feel safe, Sohwa."
"Huh?"
"You'll protect me from that beast, right?"
Sohwa's gaze darted around in panic, her expression one of complete disbelief.
"W-who? **Me?** I'll protect **you**...?"
"You protected me last time. You fought seventeen tiger hunters—so brave."
_Actually, to be honest, I only killed seven... the rest fell off the cliff themselves._
But Sohwa couldn't bring herself to tell the truth.
"You've fought seventeen hunters," Dohvi continued. "So why should you be afraid of a single tiger?"
"It's not just a tiger—it's a **mountain spirit**..." she muttered, but Dohvi pretended not to hear.
"I trust my life only to you, Sohwa. Therefore, I have nothing to fear."
Looking into his light brown eyes—so filled with unwavering trust—Sohwa felt her lips go dry.
_I'm actually a coward. I just temporarily lost my mind back then, which is why I attacked those hunters. I don't know if I could do it again if necessary!_
She knew she should be honest. But Dohvi, no matter how you looked at it, was still much younger than her, and he had no one else to rely on. To tell him to his face, _"I'll run first"_—that would be too cruel.
_Once upon a time, on the day I found Dohvi..._
He had been a tiny baby, covered in blood, abandoned in the middle of the road. Sohwa had picked him up because she was terrified that a kite might catch his scent and carry him away—even knowing the bird might attack her as well.
_This poor baby..._
"Okay." Sohwa nodded with sudden determination. "I will protect you."
As soon as she said it aloud, she felt a surge of courage wash over her. If she could handle hunters with guns, how could she be afraid of a tiger? For Dohvi, she was ready to do **anything**.
"Just trust me!"
Having received such an encouraging answer, Dohvi could barely restrain himself from biting the adorable fox right then and there.
But his fiery gaze did not go unnoticed. Sohwa, quietly clearing her throat, immediately shifted into her fox form and deftly slipped from his grasp.
"Aren't you cold?" she asked, looking up at Dohvi from the ground.
She bent her front paws, preparing to spring, and Dohvi, smiling down at her, asked in return:
"What if I am?"
"Then you need to wear a scarf—"
Before she could finish, she leaped onto his lap, then scrambled up to his shoulder and wrapped her fluffy tail snugly around his neck.
"Fox scarf. Are you warm now?"
"Yes," Dohvi murmured, gently stroking her soft head. "Very warm."
He held her close and headed toward home, the first snow long melted, nothing but quiet warmth remaining between them.
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