In this kind of environment, captured in a desolated and dirty side street, even the shadows of the society were too scared to walk further into the isolation this path promised to be. Wooyoung is pretty sure nothing can surprise him anymore because he is mentally prepared for everything. He just finishes his last pray and curses himself for not writing down his last will properly. So there is nothing left to do than to wait for the dreaded attack and for the vampire to bite down on his neck. All he hopes for is that it won’t be too painful and his last wish is for the end to come quick because the anxious feeling is far worst.  Don’t people say hope dies last? But hope seems so far away right now that Wooyoung isn’t even sure how to spell it anymore. Making surviving plans for what purpose?

There is no place he could run, let alone hide. Back to the woods maybe - but then again the vampire would find him in a blink and the chances for him to find a human being with a liver he is able to eat are around impossible. Despite that Chansung pretty much ruined all his believes and purposes to live, how should he ever kill a human again if he now knows that they are people like Chansung? And a fox that can’t enjoy tricking people and lurking them into his traps isn’t worth to be called nine-tailed anymore. Wooyoung always had a vivid imagination and it surely isn’t abandoning him in his last hours either, because suddenly Chansung dashes into the dark and hugs … nothing?

It needs three times of eye-rubbing and a lot of concentration from the young fox till he could see something like a shadow. He is used to block out weak sprites around him, it would be bothersome to see anything that lives in between the worlds, but in this case this doesn’t seem to be a weak spirit like fen fires. No, this kind of spirit seems to hide its living sours on purpose and if Chansung wouldn’t give it away Wooyoung would have never spotted it. To be honest he is mildly impressed by the human’s skills. Though he has witnessed him seeing or even speaking with a lot of things like imps or wisps which surprised him, but never has he shown skills that were beyond his own abilities, till now. It took Wooyoung his whole four tails of fox power to make the shadow visible. He isn’t stupid; he knows that he can only look through the fog because it lets him.

“Oh no, oh no no no no!!”

As the blurred outline shaped the fox started to panic. This is worse, no insane! It’s even plainly impossible. How does he even end up in such a mess?!

“Don’t tell me we meet a ing cutter!!!”

He pleads but even if Chansung would be kind enough not to voice Wooyoung’s discovery out loud, it won’t change anything at the fact that he indeed stands about ten steps away from the death in person.

Yes, a vampire is a toy in contrary to this. His heart pounds so hard and so fast against his chest that at least he is assured that he hasn’t died on a cardiac attack yet. But he is certain that it might follow because why else would mortality’s end stare at him in such amusement.

What person with a healthy state of mind would want to meet a cutter - let alone cuddle one!

Okay, this is it the proof: Chansung is crazy and totally insane, but he figures that it shouldn’t surprise him. After all he brought a nine tailed fox to his house and takes care of it after it tried to kill him… Twice!

Chansung just has to have a dead wish or something. Nothing Wooyoung can’t relate to in some ways, it gets tiring to run away and don’t they say if a cutter touches you, then anything is over? So maybe Chansung is just being a genius and at least it would be over soon.

Wooyoung really tried hard to encourage himself to see it all in a positive way but when the black hooded creature turns his head to him, he almost pees himself if he hasn’t had been short before their night trip.

The man in the black coat chuckles and it’s the creepiest thing Wooyoung ever heard and he has heard a lot of hair rising sounds. After all he has been born in a magical forest.

“It’s a long time since someone called me ‘cutter’.”

If his back wouldn’t already face the wall he would have stepped back, plainly reflexively, because he knows very well that there is nowhere he could escape. Though he has heard rumors of people avoiding their soon end because they know how to gamble. Apparently the death loves games…

“Recently the name ‘Shinigami’ has become popular.”

The death continues to speak as casually as if it is the most common thing on earth to bump into your last companion before the end. Yes maybe he should challenge him, maybe that’s the best way out… but how to challenge someone if your body is busy shivering and your mouth is clenched together. His body feels paralyzed under the gaze of the stranger and his muscles don’t seem to obey his brains plea to move. The closer death approaches the fox, the more helpless and numb he feels - actually the only thing he does feel indeed is the cold stone he presses his body onto as close as possible.

“Which level?”

Wooyoung is surprised when he hears his own voice splutters out the question that seriously bugs him, of course he would love to know how he is going to die! What shocks him most is not the high pitch revealing his fear, but more that a sound escapes his mouth at all.

“Oh you do know plenty of things, but that comes to no surprise. After all you are a white fox and foxes of your kind are taught the old ways.

I’m L3 and…”

He's not able to finish his sentence because now Chansung shoves himself between the two of them, but Wooyoung isn't sure if he will get over the very traumatic experience of his so called friend hugging that thing. In this very moment he feels even more like he knows nothing about this human being. Not a single bit more than two weeks ago. Chansung doesn’t hesitate to touch the man in front of him, he also doesn’t show any sign of fear.

What’s wrong with that guy, Wooyoung ponders.

“What’s an L3 MunMun?”

“Stop calling me MunMun already!”

If Wooyoung wouldn’t know any better he would think he sees a faint blush on the cheeks of the so dreaded Guard between the worlds.

“How many times do I have to tell you it’s Minjun, not MunMun!”

He continues to nag, obviously trying hard to sound serious. But despite the words there is just too much affection shown in the way he looks at Chansung or the way he tussles his hair, giving away that he really doesn’t care not even a single bit.

Wooyoung felt like being in the wrong movie, like seriously a death god is attached to his prey….

Well maybe not prey but client, or job? Well everything he knows about creatures like… Minjun is that usually they only were seen by people who already died or were close to dying. Their job usually implies to cut the strings between the soul and their mortal bodies. Obviously that’s why the foxes call them ‘cutter’.

Which leads him back to the thought if he is just the most unlucky fox in the whole universe?

No seriously how unlucky could one single fox be?

Did he somehow sign a death contract before he was even born, because as far as he remembers, in his life he somehow just slips from one possible death scenario to the next!

“”L3”, sweetheart, is my job level.”

Oh great now Chansung is even called ‘sweetheart’ by the death in person. Does he really need to understand where this is leading?

“L1 are responsible for all natural deaths, death by age or weak bodies.

Death by illnesses and diseases do also fall under L1 cases since death by age is rather rare nowadays.

L2 have the duty to take care of anyone dying by accident, they also get the suicides… Though in some rare cases those are also resigned to us… Because L3 takes care of all forced ones…”

And Chansungs mouth shaped into a silent ‘oh’.

“You mean murdered people, and some people do murder themselves so they are considered as L3 cases right?”

“Yes, if they weren’t totally willing to die…”

But Wooyoung isn’t able to process all the information just given to him because his brain more or less has stopped working after the word ‘sweetheart’.

He must have snapped and that’s all a way too real dream because he is pretty sure he has never had such a vivid dream where he has been able to smell the fog in the streets, the trash rotting in rubbish bags bum around in the full refuse bin, with a long overdue need to be cleared and cleaned out. Heck he could even taste the urine, because it plastered their ways in layers and not only humans but also the feces of rats. Yes he could hear them and feel their eyes on him, because he would be their next feast once his soul is chopped off his poor body which would lie here, defenselessly, waiting that someone might find him and save his mortal remains from their sharp teeth and claws.

Suddenly getting killed by a vampire sounds like the much better option and he would probably try to make the run for it if he hasn’t known by now that you never can escape the death once you are on his list.

“Actually you aren’t on my list.”

Realizing they weren’t talking to each other anymore and suddenly focusing on him makes him wince.

“The ?! Being a grim ripper shouldn’t allow you to read minds, that’s just rude!”

He probably is too startled to cope with the importance of the information the other just nonchalantly has shared with him.

“I don’t, you simply don’t think silently enough.”

He grins wickedly but Wooyoung stops in his thoughts because only just now he realizes what the words meant.

“Wait, you mean I don’t die forcefully?

“Well at least not today. Maybe tomorrow?!”

The dark shadow-like figure smiles mischievously at him.

“But you are very lucky fox, because I might happen to know a way to keep you off my list.”

If he would be a plain hybrid he is pretty sure his ears would have popped out, a natural impulse of any shifter. But he isn’t a weak half-human-creature, his family is one of the rare nine-tailed fox lines which never had any half-blood accidents, no he is a pure bred white nine-tailed fox offspring, trained to be proud of his family history since they never used to hide beyond humans to fit in. No fox in his right state of mind would want to become a human, or have a human mate to camouflage their fox abilities. Foxes that do were valid low and brought disgrace over their families… Well yes he pretty much ruined his family tree already. But he has never planned to get attached to a human and spare his life, nor did he want to stay in the city, he loves his magical forest and he craves with every heartbeat to feel the mud between his palms again. Not being in his right form for so long felt exhausting and wrong.

“Tell me!” Wooyoung blurts out, because he is so ready to let this nightmare finally have an end. “Well it’s simple and pretty obvious isn’t it?”

“See, I told you MunMun would help you!”

Chansung claims eagerly, not seeming to mind the tension lingering in the air.

There is a long silence and in an instant flash Wooyoung feels his heart tighten.

Instinctively his tails have begun to manifest and wrap around his body protectively.

“Yes exactly!”

Minjun speaks happily that Wooyoung seems to have guessed his request.

“Give me your tails and you won’t be interesting for any vampires anymore.”

Wooyoung panics and he grabs his tails to hug them tightly, two on each side, since he has only four tails yet.

“NO! That’s impossible! That’s almost as if you would ask me to give up on my heart!? How am I supposed to live the life of a fox if I don’t have my tails… my magic anymore?”

He is pretty sure he is tearing up, and that’s the lowest he has ever been in his whole life, crying in front of a human! But to his defense, he is absolutely sure that none of his forefathers ever had to face the death in person the way he has to. There were dozens of reasons why Wooyoung just couldn’t give away his fox tails. Apart from being an important part of him, his fox tails were holding all his magic, without them he would become useless, he couldn’t even shift to his real form anymore, because a fox couldn’t exist without his tails! He would have to live the life of a human if not even weaker.

“MunMun, why would you want to hurt him like this?”

Chansung whispers, now protectively standing in front of Wooyoung, making sure the fox feels even more defenseless and frail. He hasn’t even lost them, yet needed to be shielded by a human! How low could he have fallen in a single day?!

“Because a tail contains the magic of a nine tailed fox, without any tail there is no benefits for a vampire to kill a fox.”

“I see, so he will never have his fox magic again?”

Chansung’s voice is full of concern and worry.

“Actually no, he could go and find his other tails, but Chansung that’s very difficult, a fox has to learn to use the magic and the power of each tail. Even though Wooyoung was born with four tails in a nine tailed line, there is no guarantee he will master another one. It takes a fox hundreds of years to be ready to let a new tail appear.”

Knowing Minjun for his whole life he senses the bait in his words: He needs to be ensured before he decides on whether this was a good deal or not.

“But you said we could find them right?”

Minjun titles his head; he seems deeply in thought before he finally gives in.

“Yes that might be possible, but the fox magic is a well-kept secret and rumors say that not even successful nine-tailed foxes remember where their tails have come from. It’s an old magic, and it’s a mystery to even Arthemis themselves.

“Oh we will!”

“But ….I can’t give up on my tails, what would I be without my tails?”

“Wooyoungie don’t worry I assure you we will find your other tails. It’s just four of them anyway, so they are still five more! Besides, Jeonggam and I will take care of you!”

Oh great … he hasn’t even accepted yet, already he feels like he has been degraded to the mercy of the cat. Though it doesn’t seem there are any other options. He really isn’t the slightest bit comforted by Chansungs promise. But heck, somehow this human would probably even ensure him that it was safe to lie into a coffin and he would doubtlessly do so. There is just something about that human that bewitches him. Somehow he does trust Chansung and he knows way too well that already this should be the proof that stupidity took over him! He surely needs to bring some rice wine to the moon goddess soon if he is going to survive tonight… And maybe some good excuses for his forefathers, in case he doesn’t.