Page 109 of Wicked Fox

She nodded.

“I don’t know why you left and I don’t need to know,” Jihoon said, determined to stay calm. “But I need your help. Myhalmeoni is sick.” He watched her face carefully. It betrayed nothing of her inner thoughts. “The doctors don’t know why she’s been in a coma this long. Her brain waves are strong. She has a good heart. I brought in a shaman and she said that there is dark energy in Halmeoni, like she’s been cursed.”

Miyoung shook her head. “It’s not a curse.”

“Then what is it?” Jihoon yelled. The act of raising his voice made him light-headed. “If Yena did something to her, I need to know.”

Miyoung moved forward.

“Stop!” A heat rose in his chest, like a ball of fire that wanted to break free.

Miyoung halted mid-step.

Jihoon pressed his hands against his temples as dots of light danced in his vision. This was not the moment to get sick. He’d waited over two months for this. He would get an answer to his questions before she disappeared again.

His legs wobbled, and before they dropped out from beneath him he sat on the swing again, trying to regulate his breathing. Sweat beaded along his skin despite the winter chill. He counted to ten, then back again.

“Are you sick?” Miyoung asked, still standing a meter away like she was afraid to approach.

“I’m fine,” he murmured.

“Jihoon-ah,” she said, and it hurt to hear her say his name in such a familiar way.

“What are you even doing here? Shouldn’t you go hunt?” he spat out. “Or are you thinking you have the perfect victim right in front of you?”

Miyoung kept her face blank and it should have worried him.He was prodding her when he knew better, but she wouldn’t physically hurt him. Even now he still believed that.

“I’m not—” she began, then squeezed her lips so tight they paled from the pressure.

Jihoon considered pushing the subject, but knew it wasn’t worth it. Miyoung had always done exactly what she wanted. If she was going to hunt or not wasn’t his concern. He rubbed his fingers against his temple to ease the throbbing behind his eyes.

“You don’t look like you’re doing well,” Miyoung said.

He hated that she saw him when he was so weak. “You think? My whole life was ripped apart by a girl who said she cared about me, then disappeared. My halmeoni’s in the hospital, bills are piling up because the restaurant is closed, and I have a damn migraine. Would you be all right?”

His headache swelled. If it got any worse, he might have an episode. That was not something he needed right now, not in front of Miyoung.

“Do you want me to leave?”

He didn’t reply because if he said no, then she’d know how much he still cared. But if he said yes, she might go, and he didn’t want that either.

“I don’t know how to talk to you,” he said instead. “I don’t know how to be around you.”

“I don’t regret it,” she whispered.

“Coming back?”

“Caring about you.”

48

IT WAS THEfirst time she’d said the words. And they caught at her throat.

Miyoung watched Jihoon struggle with her confession.

“I didn’t want to admit it... before.” She paused, hesitant to bring up the past, but she had to say it at least once. “You made me feel like I could let go for the first time in my life and that scared me. I’ve lived my whole life letting fear control me. And I hurt you because I still don’t know how to let go.”

“And you think now that you’ve come back and said these things, all should be forgiven?”

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