He had woken up only a little while ago so there was no way he would fall asleep so soon. Horang tossed and turned where he lay and wished the fox would leave. But perhaps because the fox really had no intention of leaving, the gaze on Horang’s back didn’t ease in the slightest.

Since he had been lying here from early in the morning, he felt antsy. He ought to start his day running around the mountain, taking care of the beasts in the forest, bathing in the valley — but because of this fox he couldn’t move an inch from this cave.

“You really won’t leave?”

Not able to stand it anymore, he abruptly got up and faced the fox.

Horang knew this was his own problem, but something like patience didn’t come easily. The time he had spent as a mountain lord was longer, but to Horang who had grown up as a tiger, there was nothing more difficult than learning patience.

The fox, as if he knew Horang would be like this, just smiled sunnily and shrugged his shoulders. His expression seemed to say Horang was only making his mouth sore asking something so obvious.

Horang huffed agitatedly.

‘Should I give him a good beating and chase him out?’

He considered it briefly, but of course, Horang had no immunity at all towards that pretty face, not nearly enough to be able to raise his fist towards it.

No matter how he looked at that face which smiled easily, it was a pretty face without a single way to hit it. To add, in Horang’s eyes, that body looked delicate enough to break with a tap.

‘Then what? Pick him up by force and throw him outside?’

Even this didn’t seem like it would really get through to that persistent fox. He would definitely follow after Horang again, and even if Horang chased him off the mountain, he’d come back. The area Horang could block with his soul force was not so large as that, so in the end they would just wear each other out.

Horang looked alternatingly between the fox who was looking at him smiling broadly and outside the cave. Then he suddenly got to his feet. Of course, the fox followed him to stand. Horang, glancing at the fox, withdrew his soul force and went outside.

“Where is it that you go?”

He didn’t reply to the fox’s question. He had no reason — to obligation — to reply, did he?

Horang held his head high, firmly ignoring the fox, and went outside.

‘He’s getting nosy because I paid attention to him.’

Hemingway App makes your writing concise and correct.

Horang’s thoughts were as such. Not saying a word to him would do the trick. No matter how good a talker that guy was, no matter how stubborn, no matter how much of a mule he seemed — in the end if Horang just ignored him it would be useless.

Horang had known this from the start, but he’d given it up easily. From now on, he just had to stick to his guns and ignore the fox.

Of course, for Horang that wasn’t so easy. Holding back when his temper flared up was difficult. And not being distracted by someone constantly being next to him was also hard. But for this approach, that seemed like it was the best way.

If he was a strong mountain lord, with a powerful soul force, maybe he wouldn’t have been troubled like this. Since Horang would have either just destroyed him, or overpowered him and chased him out. Of course, he wouldn’t really go as far as destroying him, but at the very least Horang would chase him off so he wouldn’t be able to come back.

In the end, all of this was because he was beast-born, because he was still a weak, young mountain lord. Thinking like this, Horang couldn’t help the sigh that left his lips.

“Are you going to patrol the mountain? Where is it you are planning to go first? Walking together would be pleasant as well.”

The fox stood next to Horang and chattered on. At first, Horang had thought he was a dullard who couldn’t speak, but it turned out that he was a chatterbox. Even as he wondered what a guy could talk so much for, his voice was pleasant to listen to, and the way he chattered with such a happy expression wasn’t all bad.

Thinking of the fox’s voice as some accompaniment, Horang went here and there around the mountain like usual.

“Hey.”

Deep in the mountain, before a small and narrow tree hollow, Horang let out a slightly wounded sound.

A water deer fawn, born not long ago. When it was first born — thinking it might be eaten by other beasts — Horang had stayed by its side guarding it. In this forest where Horang couldn’t interfere in its survival. Hoping that at least it could be safe on the day it was born, Horang had guarded it.

But as soon as Horang and the fox arrived, instead of Horang, the whelp went running up to the fox and nuzzled at him with its head.

Whether that face looked beautiful even to beasts, even in front of Horang who had been so good to it, it cozied up to the fox and was acting all cute. Rather, if anything, the fox wore a conflicted expression.

“Am I invisible?”

“It must be because I’m a new face,” the fox said at Horang’s grumbling. But Horang didn’t even look in the fox’s direction and acted like he didn’t hear the fox. With a strained expression, the fox petted the head of the water deer fawn that was nuzzling him, and perhaps the young thing liked that, as it pranced around the fox.

Its mother was watching anxiously a little ways away from where Horang and the fox were, but the fawn just frolicked around, not paying any mind.

Although he’d been told he was handsome a few times, Horang didn’t think he was that bad-looking. And yet in front of that pretty face, he was receiving such treatment. To add salt to the wound, the person he was cast aside for wasn’t even some upstanding guy, so Horang’s mood soured further.

If this was any other time, he would’ve stayed to watch for any danger nearby. But today he just got up to leave. The fox followed right away, and the water deer fawn tried to follow after, but its mother stopped it so it didn’t follow them far.

“Must be nice,” Horang — who had been ignoring the fox until now — said shortly. His voice sounded like he was hurt, but perhaps the fox was pleased regardless, as he walked near Horang while waving his tail.

After ignoring him for so long, this was the first Horang had spoken to him. To the fox, that was enough, and it seemed like he didn’t care what the subject was.

“I only have eyes for Horang-nim, so might you not consider me instead?”

“Did I say anything about that? And there’s no reason for me to feel happy because you’re looking at me.”

“I am content with just Horang-nim.”

Horang regretted the fact that he had spoken first after resolving to ignore him. But regretting it didn’t pick up the words he had spilled, and the fox was already rattling on as if he was happy with just the fact Horang had talked to him.

“So, please marry me.”

“I should just stop wasting my breath.”

“I like Horang-nim most of all, I wish to be by Horang-nim’s side.”

As the fox spoke happily as if he was serious, Horang quickly turned his head away — the back of his neck reddened slightly. The fox’s eyes glimmered mischievously.

“You say that when you’ve barely seen me twice.” Horang scoffed, saying the words as if chiding himself for even considering if the fox was really serious.

If Horang’s memory was correct, Horang had never met the fox before that day. That one day all of a sudden, like a bolt of lightning, the fox suddenly sent his proposal and suddenly just threw himself at Horang.

Countless letters, after which he had only seen his face yesterday and today — just twice. More and more, in this way Horang was convinced the fox wasn’t serious and was merely playing.

At Horang’s words, the fox stopped in his tracks.

When Horang belatedly realized the fox had stopped and looked back at him, the fox was looking at Horang with a pinched smile. A face that said he had a lot of things to say.

For some reason, Horang also stopped. For a while, the two stood like that looking at each other.

“…I simply like Horang-nim, I wish to be by your side, and I wish to marry you.” After a long time, the fox opened his mouth and spoke the same words he had been saying before.

‘Did he really take so long just to say that?’

Horang furrowed his brow at the words that were different than he expected.

“Did you really stop just to say that nonsense?”

“Nonsense, you say. But the words I said are most important to me.”

When the fox had stopped and looked at him with an expression that said he had a lot to say, Horang had thought that perhaps there really was something he didn’t know, some secret personal reason that made the fox do this.

If he was threatened by another mountain lord. Or if he was in a situation where if he didn’t marry a mountain lord his mind and body wouldn’t be safe. Or perhaps he really did like Horang — in the past that Horang couldn’t remember. Perhaps they really had some sort of history. Horang imagined those reasons, and if that really was the case, Horang even worried a little about if he could help him.

But the fox just smiled and said he liked Horang.

“Must there be a reason for me to like you? You were so amazing that I think I was smitten with just one look.”

“Quit fooling around!”

As Horang burst out, even the insects stopped their buzzing and quieted. As if trembling from Horang’s aura, the small creatures held their breaths. At the suddenly silent surroundings, Horang became a bit embarrassed, but he continued to look at the fox angrily.

The fox let out a light laugh. Horang, who bristled at the sound of that laugh, considered dishing out a slew of curses, but grinded his teeth, turned back around, and walked.

”Horang-nim, did you not just now consider my sincerity?"

"And I figured there wasn’t any in you!"

"If you say such things I’m hurt."

"I wonder, if that’s real either?”

While Horang internally blamed himself for engaging with the fox yet again, he retorted diligently to each and every word the fox said. And each time he did so, the corner of the fox’s lip tilted upwards amusedly.

Following the mountain path Horang usually took, the fox and Horang together completed one full circuit of the mountain. The mountain was rugged, and there were also rock faces that were steep enough to make it hard to traverse even for a demon. Horang didn’t consider the fox and took the path he always took. There was no reason to consider him. Since Horang wasn’t taking the fox along because he wanted to, but the fox was chasing him around as he pleased.

But the fox leapt up those rock faces quite adeptly, and followed Horang without losing his tail. Like that, they went here and there around the mountain, until the sun began to set.

They went to the summit and the wide, sweeping field of flowers halfway up the slope. They walked around a dream-like scene with the sun shining through giant trees. The fox even remarked that frolicking around such nice scenery with just the two of them was like playing at romance.

Of course, each time, Horang ignored the fox.

”Are you really planning on following me around all day?"

"Did I not say I would not leave until you agree to marry me?”

Horang, who thought he would at least leave once the sun set and it became dark, scowled. Even on the path back to the cave, the fox was still following his tail, and Horang felt off-balance.

And on the way back to the cave, he met yet the other one that had caused Horang’s bad mood.

”Ttorang-ah!”

Horang spotted Ttorang from a distance and called out. There was the fact that he had lashed out at the squirrel yesterday, and the fact that the fox made him uncomfortable, so when he saw the squirrel he called out to Ttorang in relief. But Ttorang who had run towards Horang as soon as it saw him, stopped in place when it saw the fox standing behind him.

And instead of coming closer to Horang, it went up a nearby tree and sat on the end of a branch and tilted its head.

“He’s just a weird fox who’s following me around.”

Ttorang tilted his head further at Horang’s answer. As if unsure, it looked the fox up and down, and it shot a glance back at Horang. Horang’s face, as he was watching Ttorang’s actions, became stormy. The fox didn’t understand and looked back and forth between the small squirrel sitting on the tree branch and Horang.

“It’s not like a ‘mate’. I said this guy is a male. And I didn’t kidnap him either. Why am I a female! I said that guy’s a male, and I’m also a male! Two males don’t mate!”

Ttorang just tilted its head this way and that, but Horang alone raised a fuss as if he understood everything Ttorang was saying. And perhaps he got fed up as he picked up a nearby stone. He threw that stone, and the stone hit the branch Ttorang was sitting on, causing Ttorang to run away again.

“That idiot! Can’t you understand a thing!”

“Hahaha.”

The fox watched the two with wide eyes, and when Ttorang ran off while Horang huffed and puffed he let out a loud, amused laugh. Horang’s face became red, and he covered his eyes with a hand.

“Who was that little one? I’d like to be friends.”

“None of your business.”

If the two of them started getting chummy, it was clear that Horang would lose his dignity as a mountain lord and die of stress. Horang thought to himself he could never let the fox and Ttorang get to know each other, and grumbled, internally slandering Ttorang as he resumed walking towards the cave.

From behind, the fox watched Horang’s back while still laughing quietly. And the sound of that laugh grated on Horang’s nerves.

“Quit laughing!”

“Hm,mmh, pft, mmh. I apologize. Horang-nim is… I mean, so…”

The fox briefly regarded Horang and put on a slightly conflicted expression. The fox paused for a long moment, and as if curious, Horang’s eyebrows flew upwards. The fox — for a moment — hesitated, then hid his mouth and, letting out a little laugh, opened his mouth.

“Because you are cute.”

“You, you’re clearly crazy!”

‘I knew it, he was messing with me!’

The word ‘cute’ could not be befitting to himself, so Horang thought the fox was just saying this to fluster him.

‘I knew it!’

Today as well, while going around the rugged mountain and doing ‘romantic’ things with the fox, he had worried countless times about what if the fox was serious. Just a bit ago at the fox’s expression that said he had a lot he wanted to say, he had considered that very thought.

Of course, even if the fox was sincere he would reject it. Rejection, hurting others’ feelings — Horang, who wasn’t used to these things, worried that if the fox seriously wanted to marry him, if instead he shouldn’t get mad any further and reject the fox more gently. But it seemed those worries were all foolish.

In the end, he was just playing games. The fox might not have been asked to do this by someone else, but Horang was sure the fox was at least mocking him.

‘And saying I’m cute!’

It seemed like Horang had foolishly taken this fox seriously, and his mood soured further.

Horang shook with tremors, but instead of lashing out, he just turned around and walked to the cave. The fox, a little taken aback, followed quickly after him, but Horang was resolved to ignore the fox from now on, no matter what happened.

“Horang-nim, are you in a upset? But…”

Horang didn’t look at the fox. Although previously he had been annoyed but still replied back, now he completely stopped. Even when the fox looked at him with a complicated expression, Horang didn’t look at him. And the fox, as if worried, lowered his tail and hovered around Horang.

The sullen look on his delicate face bothered him, but Horang had no capacity to deal with a rotten demon that planned on toying with a mountain lord.

Horang was about to go back to the cave, go home and pretend like the fox wasn’t there. But he remembered the pillar on his house had been on the verge of collapse, and so he went to the back of the cave, spreading his soul force so the fox couldn’t come in.

The fox tried to follow right behind Horang, but was blocked by his soul force and couldn’t come any closer. Horang had been sure to firmly wrapped several layers to block him so he couldn’t enter . If Horang didn’t wish it, the fox definitely wouldn’t be able to come inside here.

“Horang-nim.”

The fox called out to Horang, but Horang turned his body away and lay down pretending he didn’t hear. Today he had gone around the mountain longer because of the fox, and he hadn’t been able to take a nap either. Horang was tired, and he needed to sleep.

‘Would he really go through all that trouble to toy with me?’

Thinking that when he opened his eyes in the morning the fox would have left by then, Horang closed his eyes.

“Please sleep well. And only have pleasant dreams.”

He heard the fox’s voice, but with effort, he ignored and it closed his eyes and fell asleep.