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Seokga frowns as he scans the computer monitor displaying the CCTV footage from two nights ago, when the two young men had been brutally murdered by the Scarlet Fox. To his eternal suffering, there was no camera—none at all—stationed on Bomnal Street where the murder occurred. As a result, for the past three hours, he has been running through all available camera footage of the city that night, squinting for any sign of abnormal activity, any sign of a gumiho making her way to the street that would become the murder site.
So far, though, he has found nothing. All of the footage is fuzzy and blurred, and as for the camera stationed on the street just before his desired site, it was covered for a half hour by a particularly fat moth who had decided to use the lens as its resting spot for the night.
“Damned insect,” Seokga mutters, rubbing his strained eyes wearily. He has been in the precinct since two a.m., determined to catch at least a glimpse of a possible suspect. But there is nothing, nothing at all, thanks to that godsdamn moth. To add to his woes, the DNA found on the corpses matches no DNA on file in either South Korea, China, Japan, Thailand, England, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, America, Mexico, or even Vatican City.
Files can be faked,Seokga reminds himself. He hadn’t expected this case to be solved quickly thanks to easily accessed DNA files. He knows that he’s in it for the long haul with this one.
But he has no leads at all, save for knowledge that the murder weapons used were gumiho claws and, possibly, the infamous daggers of the Scarlet Fox.
Seokga sighs thinly through his nose and shuts off the monitor. The precinct is still relatively silent in the early morning, with naught but the steady hum of the printer that is slowly spitting out the mound of paperwork that he’ll need to complete later thanks to the four Unruly cheonyeo gwisin he’d dispatched the night before. The virgin ghosts had been erecting crude phallic statues all over the city…statues that still remain even after the four gwisin had been sent down to Jeoseung. He’ll ask Chief Shim to dispatch some haetae to take them down, or wait for the city to take notice and eventually do it themselves.
Seokga rolls his neck and glances blearily around the precinct. In the early morning, the surrounding cubicles are still empty save for one weary-looking haetae who is practically chugging a large iced coffee. Seokga rubs his temples. What he wouldn’t give for a coffee right now.
He begins the paperwork, barely glancing up as he hears the door of the precinct open, ushering in the muted hum and buzz of the city outside. That will be Chief Shim, no doubt, readying himself to scold Seokga for being at the precinct so early…
But it’s a pair of heels that click against the grimy tiled floor, and oval, pink-polished nails that curl over the edge of his cubicle’s divider. “Good morning,” a female voice greets merrily—much too merrily.
That voice. Seokga is still glaring at the slender hands gripping the desk divider. It sounds awfully familiar…
Slowly, he raises his eyes to the woman peering down at him with what can best be described as a shark’s smile. More specifically, the smile of a shark about to devour exceptionally delicious prey. What the fuck?
It takes him a moment to place her. It’s not that he’s never been good with faces, it’s just that he doesn’t particularly care to take note of any visage but his own.
She is small and slender, with ridiculously voluminous brown hair and angular eyes that glitter as they meet his own. Glossy red lips are stretched into that predatory smile, displaying two small, sharp white canines that just pierce her bottom lip. The woman waggles her fingers at him in greeting. Remember me? she seems to be asking.
Seokga imagines her wearing a brown apron, holding a cup of too-sweet coffee, and recognition sets his lips into a sneer. “You,” he snaps icily, straightening indignantly and sending her a glower brimming with cold hatred. The coffee-thrower from the Creature Café. “What do you want?”
She pouts, even as it looks like she’s holding back a snort of amusement. “You’re not very nice, you know,” she replies. “I even got up early to get here on time.”
“On time?”
“Haven’t you heard?” the woman asks sweetly. “I’m your brand-new assistant.”
Seokga blinks.
The woman winks.
And then Seokga rises from his desk, irritation tightening his jaw and voice as he says, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, mortal.”
“Mortal?” She doesn’t look remotely impressed as Seokga glares down at her, at least a foot taller than her. “I’m a gumiho, thank you. The correct phrase would be ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, immortal.’ But I’ll let it slide. This time.” Even though she’s now using the correct honorifics to address him, they’re blatantly mocking. The girl seems to notice his ire and her smile grows.
Seokga’s teeth are grinding in pure, undiluted vexation. “Get out.”
“No,” she replies cheerfully. “I’ve been hired. As of today, I’m your trusty helper.” And she sends him a thumbs-up. A thumbs-up.
The audacity.
“Who hired you?” Because he knows, beyond a doubt, that he damn well hasn’t.
“We-ell…” The gumiho’s eyes move to the precinct’s doors. “He did.”
Seokga knows, without even looking, that Chief Shim has entered. “Shim,” he calls out through clenched teeth as the older haetae tries to sneak into the room without him noticing. “I would like to speak with you.”
With a sigh, the chief makes his way over to Seokga’s desk. He sends the gumiho a small, almost apologetic smile, before turning his gaze to Seokga.
“Did you,” Seokga demands, “hire me an assistant when I explicitly told you not to?”
Chief Shim grimaces. “Detective Seokga,” he says, “this is Kim Hani. And yes, she’ll be assisting you. I hired her yesterday.”
The gumiho—Hani—grins. “See? I’ve been hired.”
“I work alone,” Seokga snaps at Shim, his chest stinging. He realizes, belatedly, that he feels betrayed by the chief. Betrayed. The realization boils his blood. “I have told you that, old man. Take her back to the café, let her go back to spilling coffee.”
Shim, to his credit, does not waver. If anything, he only grows sterner. “Your manners are atrocious, Detective—”
Seokga sneers.
“—and I will not be firing Hani. From today on out, she will be your assistant. She will help you with paperwork, with cleaning up the Unruly messes you create, and she will make you coffee.”
Hani’s smile is much too sweet for his liking. His back goes rigid. “I do not,” he grinds out, “want her making me coffee. Ever.” Not after that little incident involving a soaking wet suit. “I do not want her here. Get rid of her.”
He watches in slight disbelief as Hani flinches, her eyes widening and a pale pink flush coloring her nose and cheeks. Tears swim in her angular wine-brown eyes, and her lower lip trembles. “You…”
“Detective Seokga,”Chief Shim hisses. “How dare you? Young Hani here has volunteered to help you, and you’re to treat her with the proper amount of respect.” He rubs Hani’s shoulder comfortingly. “Pay him no mind, dear. He’s nothing but a bitter old man.” He returns his glower to Seokga and does not see Hani’s lips curl into a satisfied smirk as she sends the fallen god a smug little wink.
Sly fox.Seokga scowls and points at her with a stiff finger. “Did you not see—”
But Hani has reverted to her act, seeming as if she is barely holding back tears under Shim’s confused glance.
“Enough, Seokga.” Chief Shim’s tone leaves no room for argument. “Hani is your assistant. Treat her kindly, or I’ll put myself in contact with Emperor Hwanin. I’m sure he would love to know how his younger brother fares on Iseung.” With a pointed glare, the chief departs, retreating to his own desk at the very back of the room.
Still feeling the chief’s watchful glower on his back, Seokga closes his eyes and very slowly counts to ten in an attempt to get his temper on a leash. He doesn’t, however, even make it to seven. Because Kim Hani has popped a piece of bubblegum in her mouth and is smacking on it in the most obnoxious manner possible. His eyes fly open. “Will you,” he demands, “stop that.”
She blows a large pink bubble that nearly conceals her entire face before exploding with a loud pop. “So,” she says, ignoring his previous request, “Shim says that you’re hunting the Scarlet Fox.”
“Among others,” Seokga mutters, slowly sitting back at his desk.
“Hmm.” Hani smacks her gum and looks around at the precinct. “You know, I thought this place would have a little more…interior design involved. Is the disrepair part of your penance?”
He cuts his eyes back up to the insufferable fox and glowers.
She blows a very, very large bubble.
He watches as she smiles around it and pops it with a magnificent crack.
Seokga sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Go…Go do something useful,” he mutters. Go away. Please.
“Like what?” Hani tilts her head. “Would you want a coffee?”
Yes. “No.” Seokga sets down his pen, rummaging through his mind for a list of things for his assistant to do, away from his sight.
“Are we going hunting, then?” Hani looks interested. “For Unrulies, I mean? For the Scarlet Fox?”
“Once Chief Shim hands me a case,” Seokga grits out, “then I will go hunting. You, however…” He smiles a slow, cold smile as he reaches into his pocket and withdraws a few crumpled bills. “You can go get me some breakfast.”