I had slept early, prepared to wake up and make sure Woohyun wasn't going to sneak out on me. But the moment I woke up, a steaming mug was waiting at my desk. I rubbed my eyes and was mildly startled at the view of Woohyun's back as he stared out the window, a pensive look on his face.

"Good morning to you too," I mumbled and moved towards the bathroom. I widened my eyes in surprise as I found my favourite pair of jeans, a white slip and a navy blue cardigan folded neatly next to the sink. I carefully trudged towards the doorway and leaned on it. 

"Did you--?"

"Hurry up Saya," Woohyun sighed, turning around and giving me a smile. "Before I change my mind."

I scowled and shut the door. After a quick shower, I entered my room while towel-drying my hair and took a quick swig of the hot lemon tea. I hummed in approval, only to be warned by Woohyun's eyes, boring into my face. 

"We could pour it into my travel mug," I meekly suggested. 

Woohyun nodded. "I'm waiting downstairs."

With shuffled footsteps, I followed my cousin and rushed past him to quickly pour the remains into my travel mug. Moments later, I was inside Yunho's Hummer with Woohyun at the wheel. With a sharp swerve, we were out of the garage and on the road. 

"There's a small cabin on the outskirts of the beach," Woohyun spoke, the faint sound of indie rock music playing from the stereo player. "We'll have some breakfast, I'll answer your questions and after that, we'll drop by college. Yoona wants to spend time with you."

I nodded. "She sent me a text yesterday. All that work has really isolated her from us."

I glanced at my cousin who nodded along, but I might as well have been talking to myself. The brief appearance of Sunshine Woohyun had been replaced by Cloudy Woohyun again. I stretched my neck towards the dashboard to get an advanced peek at the breakfast place. It was two storeys tall and was made of stone. I saw a few early morning joggers sitting on the benches outside, reading the newspaper or just simply enjoying the weather with a plate full of eggs and bacon. My stomach grumbled and I looked at the time. 

"I've never eaten anything this early," I muttered to myself. I expected Woohyun to ignore me and he did. Oh well.

We slipped inside the cabin and I was blown away by the warm smile that my cousin threw at the waiters. "Two regulars and a mocha latte!", he shouted. I watched as the female waitresses, charmed by the morning eye candy, gleefully nodded and motioned us to sit at a corner table. 

"Is it safe here?" I asked. Woohyun nodded. "People don't eavesdrop in Verdelann," he curtly replied. 

I suddenly felt left out. Key, Yoona and Woohyun -- what with him having lived longer -- knew about everything that was now a part of my life, more than I did. It made me feel foolish and then it made me feel angry. Woohyun must have perceived my thoughts for suddenly, he gave an apologetic smile. 

"Kitsune," he said.

I blinked and leaned in closer. "Come again?"

"Kitsune," he said. "We're kitsune. You could call us fox-spirits but that's exaggeration."

"Hold up," I said, scooting next to him so our heads were near to touching. "Are you telling me now?" When Woohyun nodded, my stomach squirmed. Here goes nothing. 

"Mythology and folklore says we're fox-spirits but that's far from it. Once upon a time, centurions ago, our ancestors were nothing but foxes with higher levels of intelligence than regular foxes. You see Saya, even among species there's an hierarchy. Among humans, it's the vampires. Among foxes, the kitsune."

"Everything changed when a shaman vampire chanced upon a kitsune territory and in rabid hunger, killed and ate them. It was cannibalistic, it was horrifying and even though today we accept that vampires are more courteous and civilized, the history of that story is still imprinted upon us."

"But there was one fool in our tribe. One of our chieftains, a beautiful woman, wanted more power. She visited the shaman vampire, who was being held prisoner at our stronghold, and without anyone's knowledge made a deal with him."

Woohyun suddenly gave a bright smile and said, "I know right?"

I furrowed my eyebrows and was about to jot down a reminder to check his lunacy, when from behind a cute girl approached us with our order. 

"Two plates of scrambled eggs, bacon and hash browns, one peach iced tea and one mocha latte," she chirped and with a quick wave at me, left us. 

"That was close," I murmured. Turning my attention back to Woohyun, I began munching on my breakfast while he sipped on his drink.

"So this shaman vampire..." I trailed off, waiting for Woohyun to pick up where we left off. He nodded and continued, "This shaman vampire is how the rumours of vampires being cannibalistic spread. There were many other vampires like that and even today there are a group of scavenger vampires. But every species has their own evils. Humans have rapists, murderers, terrorists. So among vampires, you have these bastards."

"So the lady chieftain made a deal with the shaman vampire," Woohyun said, narrowing his eyes as I found myself slowly immersing into the story. "She had discovered a... a charm, a method, you can say. Through this ritual, the spirits of the dead that still wander on Earth, those who are sort of in limbo but have no way back -- their energy force could be used to give kitsune special powers. The shaman agreed to perform the ritual but warned the lady that there was a price to pay. The price was servitude."

"Servitude?" I asked.

Woohyun nodded, his jaw clenched. "To the vampires."

I felt sorry for Woohyun. Suddenly, it all became clear. Why he despised Jaejoong but at the same time, could not say anything about him. Why he had interrupted my conversations about the Arthurs with Key so many times, even though he couldn't care less about their well-being. He was indebted to them and it was a scar he could not erase. It was for life.

"Don't feel sorry," Woohyun smiled. "It's not like we have to trail behind them all the time. I mean look at me! I am a free spirit!"

"So what happened?" I asked. "After the deal.... "

He sighed."The deal was a bit tricky. Now listen carefully, for even I'm not that good at explaining our phenomena. We're like the phoenix. We die and then we reborn out of our own ashes. It's not like the human reincarnation theory where the soul is the same but the body and life are different. No matter how many times we die, we're reborn as the same kitsune."

"Because of this gift, the ability to procreate was taken away from the females. It was hurtful for them but they realized the amount of freedom they were being granted with this curse. They were not bound by rules and customs anymore. They could be whoever they wanted to be, with each different life."

"There was one tribe amongst us who sought for something different. They would watch the humans live and began envying the power to carry down a legacy, to have a family. Rather than envying, you could say they were missing out on being parents. So one day, a male kitsune used up all his energy force and to everyone's disbelief, transformed into a man."

"He settled with the humans and though he had promised to return, he could not give up his family and spent his whole life with them. The tribe that had seen this miracle began following him and as the news spread, so emerged a new power -- the power of transformation."

"So you were born from that generation?" I asked. Woohyun looked happy at my understanding and nodded. "This is my fourth life."

I staggered a bit at the information and choked on my coffee. Woohyun patted my back but instead of apologizing for throwing in a fact like that, he began grinning. He was loosening up and it was noticeable. Warmth erased all my worries as I hoped that maybe Yoona too would feel lighter after sharing her secret.

"When the first human kitsune died, we waited for his rebirth. But that didn't happen. A fear grew that the choice to transform in and out of our original forms had killed the power to be reborn. That dread remained with us and we couldn't do anything about it until Kai."

I was reminded of the good-looking man I had met the day before and when I glanced at Woohyun, my suspicions were confirmed.

"The same Kai?" I asked, shocked. Woohyun nodded, looking a little proud. 

"The reason why I'm living my fourth life is because of Kai. Kai had always been a wild-child and he had made us solemnly swear each other to have fun in our human forms and not be carried away by the ambitions of family life. During one of our night-outs, we found a young human boy playing by the woods. It doesn't take more than a glance to recognize a kitsune and that's what he was. We approached him and asked him whether he was lost. He looked about seventeen years, human age and we were touching forty. When he spoke, we couldn't believe ourselves. It was the first human kitsune's younger brother! He told us how he had died and taken birth again and how after the fifteenth year, he had remembered his previous life and who he really was. With his newfound information, he had set out on a search, looking for his tribe to inform them of the loophole."

I nodded, then shooked. "Wait. So what was it?" 

"What was what?" Woohyun asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"The loophole! What was the loophole? Why are you, Kai and Tao still being reborn as human kitsune?"

Woohyun smirked. "You still didn't get it? We're bachelors."

I blinked at Woohyun, then scoffed. "Shut up." But Woohyun continued staring back at me and after a moment's pause, I widened my eyes. 

"So just because you guys don't have families? That's the loophole?"

"Yup. The first male kitsune's younger brother had been a bachelor all his life, never had a family. And it makes perfect sense too. The only reason we are alive with these powers is because the chieftain had promised eternal servitude to the vampires. Until the vampires are alive, so are the kitsune. But when a human kitsune becomes a father, then he has already given birth to a guaranteed vampire servant in the future. His existence has no meaning any more so he dies and his rebirth is not needed. The ones who don't have families will continue to be reborn and the only time the cycle will end is if they find someone and settle down."

"Oh." It did make perfect sense. I then gazed at Woohyun in scrutiny and said, "But you don't serve them at all."

"Of course we do," Woohyun said, looking hurt. "We keep their existence a secret. Why do you think Verdelann was made in the first place?"

I shook my head. "Wait, what?"

Woohyun rolled his eyes and glanced at my empty mug and plate. "Let's go. Jaejoong is the one who should answer that question."

"I thought we were going to see Yoona," I pointed out. Woohyun stopped walking, making me bump against his back. His face brightened and he smiled.

"Of course!" he said and in a shocking move, skipped towards the jeep in excitement.