|| chapter four ||
PS: It's a double update guys. If you haven't read Chapter 3 yet, please turn back, else you'll ruin the suspense! Thanks! :)

"A gumiho?" Kim Jieun calmly finished with a confident laugh. "I knew you were a bit slow on the pick-up, Nam Woohyun, but it took you a really long while to figure out. I was considering silencing you without making the big reveal beforehand, but that would have been too harsh on a friend."

His legs were beginning to shake out of fear for his life, and even though he tried to move them, they were unwilling to cooperate, as if the soles of his shoes were permanently glued to the ground. It was probably too late to run away now anyway. Jieun had begun inching closer to him, taking one light step at a time. The tune that she was humming ("Why Did You Come to my House?") sounded awfully eerie, and Woohyun could honestly say it was the creepiest rendition of that particular nursery rhyme he's ever heard.

"Where would you like me to start, Woohyun-ah?" she hummed as she stared him down from top to bottom, seemingly looking for the most delectable part of him to start with. "Appetizers first?" she asked, running a finger down the side of his cheek. He felt another light poke on his belly, which immediately had him breaking out in cold, clammy sweat. "Or shall we go straight to the main course?"

Last time he checked, he still needed his liver, thank you very much! Due to the pounding of adrenaline that hard-wired his body for self-preservation, the feeling in his legs was starting to come back. Slowly he started to back away, his feet turned in the opposite direction as he prepared to run, analyzing the place to be able to quickly plan his route of escape.

But before he could even break into a wild dash for his safety, childish, uncouth laughter filled the air. Jieun was already leaning on one of the stone pillars, guffawing as she pounded her fists away in her amusement. Woohyun's face fell from a petrified expression to that of utter disbelief after realizing that she had been toying with him this whole time. She really had him well-played, going so far as to riding along with his weird assumptions.

"I'm kidding, Namu! I'm kidding!" she gasped in between huge fits of laughter. "You actually fell for that? Me? A gumiho? Are you out of your mind? I would have eaten your liver a long time ago if that were the case! On second thought, maybe not. You're too greasy, I'll end up having excess cholesterol because of you!"

"Really funny, Kim Jieun! Really funny! I was really about to piss my pants there! Ever considered trying out for one of those horror booths in amusement parks because you'd make an excellent cast member!"

"Sorry! I'm sorry! But I don't regret it though--you should have seen the look on your face! Priceless!"

They ended up on one of the wooden benches still outside the yard, enjoying a serving of deokbokki each that they had purchased earlier. Woohyun had gotten over the whole gumiho joke a long time ago but was still pretending to be -hurt about it, and Jieun was gullible enough to fall for his antics.

"Woohyun, are you still not speaking to me?" the girl huffed cutely, continuously prodding and poking at him to get his attention, but he continued to ignore her, his full concentration centered on his serving of deokbokki. "Seriously, don't you feel the least bit weird? It's my house, yet you're the one doing all the sulking. You pout like a big baby, too."

Because of that remark, his feelings of mock-upset only intensified, causing Jieun to quickly retract her words. "Nam Woohyun, talk to me already," she joke-sobbed. "What would it take to have you speaking to me again?"

Woohyun gave it a lot of mock-thought but he already knew what he wanted to ask in the first place. "If you don't mind me asking, how did the whole fox guardian thing come about to the whole Kim family?"

"Oh! You've finally decided to speak to me?" Jieun chirped enthusiastically. "Are you curious about Zorro?"

"Depends, if you've got an interesting answer to my question."

"On second thought, never mind. It's a very far-fetched, unbelievable story-- difficult to explain, Woohyun. You might think that my whole family's insane and that we need to be checked in into a mass mental assylum. It's not interesting too, to top it off."

"Would I be asking about it if I wasn't interested?" he countered wistfully. "I won't laugh nor shun you nor think you're strange, I promise."

"You really promise?"

Dutifully, Woohyun drew a little cross mark over his chest to signify that he wasn't going to go back on his word. Jieun took a deep breath before recounting her story.

"Back when we were little kids, before we'd go to bed at night, our father would always tell us of stories, old legends passed down from ages within the family. One of the stories was set in the Joseon Dynasty, during the preliminary Japanese invasion attempts. Sensing the looming danger, one of the thousand-year-old fox spirits guarding the nearby forest felt for the plight of the humans and mustered up the courage to come into contact with them. So taking the form of a young maiden, she entered, forewarning everyone that there would be danger if they stayed in the village, but after the resident shaman had discovered her true identity on the night of the full moon, wherein her reflection on the water was that of a gumiho, they wasted no time and dismissed her."

"Because fox spirits were known for their trickery and thievery," Woohyun filled in.

"Exactly. Thinking that she only wanted to have them leave to be able to steal their belongings or eat their livers, they beat her up and left her on the road to die from severe injuries. But someone saw through the kind intentions of the fox spirit, took pity on her, took her into his home and nursed her wounds until she was back to good health. That person," Jieun continued, pointing to the first name on the stone tablet, "was our great Kim ancestor."

"As a sign of her gratitude for his kind heart, she promised protection over the whole family line and handed over a protective talisman, along with her final warning to leave the place to go off into hiding in the mountains where they will be safe, before she finally disappeared. Taking her word, they quietly packed up all their necessities and left for the mountains while they still had daylight. There, upon showing the talisman, they were welcomed with no question into a hidden refugee camp who gave them ample protection, food and shelter. That very night, invaders attacked the village, using the darkness as cover for their ambush. Many people perished during those attacks but our ancestor's family remained safe and secure. Months later, when the Korean army managed to take back the province and it was finally declared safe to come back, the whole family came out of hiding to find their house still standing strong. In fact, it was the only house left standing in that village. The things inside remained untouched, nothing was ransacked. Standing at the gate post was this stone statue. And ever since then, this became our lineage's protector and guardian. That's why we've taken to giving food offerings too, as a remembrance of somesort. It's some family custom that we have to continue."

"But they're not real," Woohyun mumbled. "Spirits and creatures of folklore, they only exist in literature and fiction. They're not really real, are they?"

"My brother used to think that stories were just stories too, that this was just some ploy by our father to keep us disciplined and obedient, but after what happened summers ago, well let's just say his perspective of it changed somewhat. I don't remember it very well... I was only six back then. My family used to visit our relatives in Jeonju a lot when we were younger. Us kids decided to go and play hide-and-seek in the nearby forest, and by some of misfortune, my brother and I were separated from the rest of our cousins after wandering off too far and too deep. We kept walking around for what seemed like forever, trying to find one of our elder cousins, or at least an exit. Just when we were about to give up and cry our eyes out due to exhaustion and fear, that person appeared and helped us out with no question. It was near sundown by the time we were guided towards the exit that led us straight to our grandmother's backyard. When we turned back to thank him, he had disappeared without a sound, just as mysteriously as we had met him."

"It could have been one of the villagers."

"That's what the elders thought. They wanted to get at least a description of how he looked so they could find him and thank him, but we weren't able to see his face; he had one of those traditional hand-painted masks on," she hummed, fondness laced into her tone. "The funny thing was that stone guardian had yet to be passed down to our family. So imagine the shock that the two of us had the moment we first laid our eyes on it. That very same mask our mystery person was wearing looked like an exact replica of this statue. And our grandmother belatedly tells us that it was the exact same forest of the fox spirit in the stories. You can call it mere coincidence, but my brother and I believe that there has to be something... someone looking out for us, keeping us safe from harm, fox guardian or not."

"Like a guardian angel of sorts?"

"Something like that. Except that ours was clad in black and had a fox mask on. Thus the name 'Zorro'-- my brother named him," Jieun finished solemnly, kicking a pebble away. "Right now, you must be thinking that we're a whole clan of nutjobs, aren't you?"

"I didn't think that at all. It's nice to be the one hearing you opening up and talking about your life this time around. Not a lot of people have this privilege, I heard-- I'm actually honored," Woohyun hummed. Jieun beamed up at him and mumbled a small 'thank you' for his kind words.

Woohyun found himself staring at her a bit more than was necessary, enthralled by her warm, genuine smile. Under the moonlight like this, her pale skin somewhat emitted a soft, dewy glow. His fists clenched and unclenched as he felt the sudden urge to tuck the lock of hair that was partly blocking her face behind her ear. "Jieun, don't."

She tilted her head in slight confusion at his words. "Don't? Don't what?"

"If you keep smiling like that, I'm not sure if I can hold back the urge to just hug you," he mumbled absentmindedly before realizing his little slip. "Not in a weird way! As friends, of course!" Woohyun ended with an awkward pat on her head.

Suave save, Nam. Really suave. Now she'll think you're the one that needs to see a shrink.

At least Jieun didn't make a big deal out of his awkward reasoning or read too much into it. "No wonder why girls are so into you. You have a rather charming way with words, Mr. Nam," she managed to joke light-heartedly.

"I know! You can totally relate now, right? If I recall earlier, you called this," he teased, repeating the way she his cheek earlier, "the appetizer. I must be visually appealing then for you to call me that."

That definitely got her flustered. "S-Shut up! Are we still not over this? That was a joke!" she snapped in her embarrassment. "No one should breath a word about what happened earlier ever again."

"Okay, okay, call," Woohyun eased, getting the last laugh this time around as he leaned in at a rather close proximity. "But after this last question. For real, Jieun... nothing? Not even a little pitter-patter in your heart after looking at me?"

"Now you're just fishing for compliments."

"Jieun, I'm serious."

Being Woollim's perfect poster boy, there was no denying that Woohyun was indeed very, very attractive, even by Jieun's standards. But it wasn't like he needed to know she thought that way. But after staring at his visage up close for quite awhile, she found herself mumbling absentmindedly as well. Good thing it was somewhat dim-lighted or he would really see how red her face had become because of one innocent question. "I--uhm.. I...."

Before Jieun could give her response on the matter, on perfect cue, a phone rang, cutting through the quiet night. Embarrassed, Woohyun pulled away, clearing his throat in an awkward manner. So much for a moment-ruiner right there. Jieun quickly pulled her smartphone out of her pocket to check her incoming message, instantly paling upon seeing whom it was from.

“My brother just texted, he's almost home!” she hissed in her panic. "You need to go!"

"Well and great, then I can finally meet him!" Woohyun cheered.

“Believe me, Woohyun, this is the worst possible time to meet him! You’re dead meat if he catches you here, at this time of night especially! Actually, any boy for that matter!” Jieun quickly explained. Woohyun quickly glanced at his watch and paled as well. They were having so much fun with the storytelling that time flew pretty quickly without either of them noticing. It was already nearing midnight.

That set Woohyun into a complete adrenaline-rushed state. He tried to race back to the front gate but Jieun pulled him back. "Not the front gate! He'll be coming from there, obviously!"

"Wait, what? What? Not front-- so I go through the back gate?" Woohyun mumbled incoherently in the abject of complete panic to clarify that he was still getting input right, pivoting himself around immediately. He ended up knocking Zorro's incense stand and food bowl with his arm in the process, putting the incense sticks out and sending the contents flying-- you guessed it--onto the Kim family's beloved guardian.

Woohyun and Jieun froze and stared at the desecrated ancient Joseon statue momentarily in their shock, watching as food bits started slipping down from it, landing on the floor with such a sick splatter. "I am SO sorry."

"That's okay, I'll clean it up later," Jieun reassured, before turning her focus back to their situation on hand. "Uhh, about that, we have no back gate. But past that wall is the intersecting street-- he won't be coming from there, so you can pass through that to avoid meeting my brother. I'm sorry, but can you climb?"

"Climb?" Woohyun repeated dumbly, analyzing the wall that Jieun was pointing to. It was pretty low and there was enough places and objects near to it adequate for footholding. "Over that wall? Yeah. Yeah, I can do that!"

As if earlier wasn't enough, Woohyun only added injury to insult by completely ramming into the the ancient fox statue in his rush, knocking it down from its little pedestal and sending it toppling over. Woohyun would like to think he had only imagined hearing something cracking very loudly and didn't dare to look back, not wanting to see the state of poor Zorro now.

"Don't mind that, I'll fix it later! Now, go!" Jieun ushered and together they raced towards the wall.

Woohyun immediately found a good spot for footholding and with the help of a little boost from Jieun, climbed up with ease. He had the roof to cover him, so Jieun's brother wouldn't be able to see him scaling their wall. The last thing he wanted was to be mislabeled as a thief, and that was certainly not very good for a first impression from Jieun's beloved brother. "Seriously, what are we, Romeo and Juliet?"

"Does that make you Juliet then?" Jieun laughed despite the seriousness of the situation. "I mean, you're the one on the 'balcony' here."

"Me? Juliet? Listen here-- hey, you think I can pass off as a pretty neat Spiderman? I mean, it's not New York city, but scaling up difficult walls like this should count as something, at the very least."

The guy still had enough decency to joke like that in this sort of emergency. That made Jieun laugh all the more, giving him a thumbs up before shooing him away. "Thank you for sending me home. Well, since you're not in costume... goodnight, Peter Parker!"

"Sweet dreams, MJ," he bid with a small wink before hopping off and running down the street to where his driver was waiting for him.

((((( )))))

"Jieun, I'm home! Ji?" Sunggyu called out as he stepped in through the front door, taking off his shoes, before walking through the main hallway. He had almost run over his sister in the process, who had come from the backyard entrance looking a bit dazed.

"Hey! I didn't hear you come in!" Jieun greeted, somewhat surprised to see him there, "How was it, the gig? Have you eaten?"

"It went pretty great, thank you," he responded. "Believe me, I am beyond full! They kept stuffing us with food every now and then back at the venue. Sungjong left already?"

Jieun looked momentarily confused at the mention of Lee Sungjong. And then it hit her; she remembered that she had given out Sungjong's name as an alibi instead of Woohyun's. She definitely could not let Sunggyu know that Woohyun had set foot into their household. "Ah, yes, Jongie! He--uhh-- already left! Right after sending me home, he was here for a bit, but then he had to leave, saying he had things to do."

"Ah, I see. Are you alright? You look a bit pale," Sunggyu pointed out, noticing that something was clearly off with the way his sister was acting around him. "Is something wrong?"

"I... uhh... well, I think you should see what happened to Zorro, Gyu," Jieun mumbled in guilt, her head hung completely low. She was unable to look her own brother in the eye at this point in time. He would be completely enraged at the whole statue mishap caused by Woohyun-- Zorro's statue head had cracked off and was completely broken beyond repair. Jieun figured that it was better to tell Sunggyu about it now rather than letting him discover it all on his own come morning time.

Quietly, she led him outside, past the stone lantern towers. The moment she had seen the pavillion, she ushered her brother to go on ahead of her. Scrunching his eyebrows together in confusion, Sunggyu continued on his way alone, stepping into the shrine. "Jieun. This is what you wanted to show me?" he called out darkly after seeing what was there. The girl shut her eyes, bracing herself for the scolding of a lifetime. She had exactly three seconds left in her countdown before her brother would snap.

"Would you look at this?" Sunggyu's exclamation ran through the crisp night air. He sounded anything but angry-- almost excited even. "Holy crap, this is amazing! What? How? You prepared a whole feast fit for a king! Am I missing something today? What's the occassion?"

Seriously, the statue was obviously broken and the first thing her brother notices is the food? Were her brother's eyes really that small? Bothered by his outburst, Jieun decided to come over and point out the obvious for him to see. The moment she had set foot into the shrine herself, chills ran up and down her spine.

Zorro's statue was still there, still on its pedestal, with its head intact. The food bowl for offering was still filled to the brim with the fruits and food that Woohyun and her had brought home. The incense sticks were still lit. Jieun continued to stare at it in shock, rubbing her eyes to make sure her mind and her sight weren't playing tricks on her, but the scene remained unchanged-- it was as if Woohyun had never bulldozed into it in the first place. Maybe in her state of panic, she had just been imagining all the worst possible scenarios back then. It must have never really happened in the first place.

But that wasn't right. She swore she saw it broken to the point of no return.

"Ji?"

She decided to shake the weird feeling off, responding to her brother so he wouldn't worry. "Ahh, that. There's no special occassion, really. They gave me extra portions when I bought that, so I decided to bring it here instead. I think Zorro deserves some good food every once in awhile too."

Laughing, Sunggyu ruffled her hair. "My princess and her heart of pure gold! Thank you for your hardwork today," he cooed, and when Jieun started squirming away from his grasp, he only ruffled her hair even more playfully. That earned several protests and light punches from his younger sister. "Okay, I'll stop! Now come on inside, it's getting late. You still need to rest up."

While Jieun was putting away the newly-washed and dried dishes, Sunggyu decided to give Sungjong a ring. Usually, the rest of the guys would stay and bum around (or pig out on their snack stash) after walking his sister home to wait until he arrived. So it was a rather strange occurence that Sungjong had gone off so quickly without so much as a 'hello, hyung'. Thankfully, said person managed to pick up after a couple of rings.

"Hey hyung! Is something wrong? It's a bit weird for you to call at this hour?"

"Forgive me, my conscience wouldn't let me sleep if I didn't," Sunggyu muttered thoughtfully. "I wasn't able to thank you personally for earlier!"

"Hmmm? For what exactly?"

"For walking Jieun home from her part-time job, you twit! I knew you were forgetful, but not to this extent. You even forgot your baseball cap-- it's in our living room!"

Silence.

There was an awkward scuffle on Sungjong's end of the line before he made his response. "Hyung. I didn't walk Jieun home."

"You're joking."

"I'm not, I swear. Right now, I'm over at my grandmother's house in Yongin, how would I find the time to get there and walk her home? I thought she called up Myungsoo-hyung instead. Maybe it was him?"

"Impossible. Myungsoo was with me the whole night. Dongwoo was out as well, his elder sister just gave birth. But she told me it was you who--wait. If it wasn't you, then who was she with?"

Sunggyu did a few more final check verifications with Sungjong before bidding his friend goodnight and plopping down onto the couch. Judging by how Jieun was washing two sets of used dishes and utensils, someone had definitely been over. Someone had definitely walked her home, and it wasn't any of the guys. He turned his attention to the black baseball cap in his hands. The text in the front was in English, written in bold, green letters.

TREES, it spelled out. Namu. "Namu". Nam Woohyun.

Sunggyu thought that it was very weird to have reached that conclusion based on context clues from a mere hat, but his sense of foreboding must have been telling something. Quietly, he peered into the kitchen, watching as his sister bustled about with an amused smile on her face, humming to the tune of the Spiderman theme song. If Sunggyu really thought about it, she had been a lot happier lately. She had been extending her stay in NIT past her designated working hours and would often opt to head home by herself. Whenever he insisted to pick her up, she'd always meet him at the corner of the street and never in the coffee shop itself.

Why had she lied earlier? Was there something she wasn't telling him? Did it have something to do with Nam Woohyun? Sunggyu knew that Jieun very well knew about his beef with that person. She understood very well when he had warned her to stay away from people like that person. So it couldn't be Nam Woohyun that had caught his sister's interest lately, right?

Somehow, the baseball cap in his hand was telling him otherwise.

A/N: Here are a little tidbits and fun facts for you guys, in no particular order of importance:
1) For those that might have gotten confused-- nope, Jieun and Sunggyu aren't other-worldly beings nor do they have magical, mystical powers. They're ordinary, normal citizens (of Townsville Seoul, South Korea)! The self-repairing statue, though, that's another story. *hint, hint, wink,wink* 
2) Hanoks are the traditional houses of South Korea, and yes, they've still got them in the city! Here's are a few pictures of Bukchon Hanok Village for your reference [1, 2, 3]. Dramas like Personal Taste and Heartstrings were shot here!
3) Woohyun actually owns a cap with the word "TREES" on it [see picture here]. For the benefit of non-fans/those who are unfamiliar with Infinite and new Inspirits, 'tree' in Korean translates to "나무 (namu)", which is our Nam Woohyun's nickname in the fandom.
4) (Don Diego de la Vega) Zorro is actually Spanish for 'fox' (thus the name choice). Also, part of the reason why I chose a fox guardian for the Kim family? This.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Once again, feedback is highly appreciated. I'd like to know what you're thinking of this so far. Until the next! Arriba, arriba! Andale, andale!