When I arrived home, I was immediately engulfed in my mother’s tight embrace. “Eomeoni, what’s wrong?”

She sobbed, “You’re okay. You’re okay…” She touched my cheek and inspected me.

Abeoji let out a sigh of relief, “Do you have any idea how worried we were?”

I frowned lightly, “Why? What’s wrong?”

Eomeoni became quiet. Abeoji’s face turned serious. “A villager found the Kim family’s daughter dead in the forest… She was mauled to death by a wolf.”

My eyes widened. “You mean… Nana… Nana’s dead? Kim Nana?” Abeoji nodded, once, confirming the death of my neighbour. My mouth opened, in shock and I stumbled back, feeling sick.

Eomeoni grabbed me, “Haru-yah, are you okay? Don’t scare eomeoni! Please! Haru-yah!” I pulled away from eomeoni and ran out of the house, heading towards the forest, despite my parents’ calls.

I’ve always loved the moon. I loved its mysterious way of lighting up the dark night sky, the way it changed shape throughout the month and the way is outshone every bright star surrounding it. I loved hearing stories about the moon. I loved the way it looked like it contained the shadows of a girl and a rabbit. Most of all, I loved the fact that every month, on the day of the full moon, it brought Hongki.

But, for some reason, tonight, the moon seemed like a curse to me, for it had taken Hongki away the moment it appeared and when I needed Hongki most.

“Hongki-yah!” I slid the doors of the hanok open, only to be welcomed by darkness.

It was useless, I knew. Hongki had probably ran off to another beautiful, faraway country, and he was only going to return when the next full moon came.

I collapsed to the floor. “Hongki… where are you? I need you…”

A low growl alerted me and I quickly looked up. “Hongki!”

My heart bubbled in excitement when I saw a dark shadow of a wolf ahead of me. It came close to me. “Hongki…”