C h a p t e r   16

A  e    S  o  o

The moment I open my eyes, a smile appeared on my face. He’s here right in front of me and he’s staring at me as he smile back. Wait, I guess he’s smiling first before I do. I don’t know. But the moment I saw Sehun’s face, we’re both smiling. He brushes his hand to my face and chuckled.

“What?” I say.

“I just discovered something.”

“And that is?”

“I found a new hobby. I love staring at you while you sleep.” I chuckle. “When I woke up, I was supposed to look at the clock to check what time it is. But guess what I did?”

“What?”

“I locked the door and pushed the cabinet to shut it close because I know they’ll be searching for you any moment now. I just want to keep staring at you.” I gasp looking at the clock. 

Shoot. 

When I was about to jump out of the bed when he holds me from behind and he rested his head on my shoulder. “See? This is why I don’t want you to wake up. I just want to continue lying in here with you.”

“Oh my god Sehun, we have to move right now! I don’t need them hating you even more if they found out that we just did it already!”

“I already told your Uncle about that.”

When I’m already standing up and dressing myself up, I froze and turn to him. “Come again?”

He grabbed his phone from the nightstand and showed me a text that he sent Uncle earlier and it says

I just did it with her. I’m sorry. But I used the you gave me. Thank you very much. I tried to hold back but I love her so much.

My hand finds its way to my mouth in shock. I can’t believe he just sent that. “What did you just do?!”

He smiles kissing my forehead and jumps out of the bed getting dressed. “I know what I did and I’m going to be responsible for whatever happens.” He turns to me after putting his pants on and holds me close. “The moment I claimed you as my bride is the very moment I swore to myself that I will love you and that I’ll protect you even if it means risking my life in exchange for yours. I’ll never let what happened to your parents happen to you too Ae Soo.”

I look up at him. That is the sweetest thing he had ever said to me just now and I just want to kiss him again. “I want to kiss you right now but I’m afraid that if I do, we won’t be able to make it in time.”

He laughs and kisses my cheek. “This will do.”

I smile and run towards the door after dressing up. I stop and turn to him. “You know I love you so much right?”

“I do and I love you too.”

“Alright, but can you move this now? I have to leave this room.” I say pointing at the cabinet that he used to block the door from opening. He sighs and walked towards it then pushes it away. I almost forgot that this guy isn’t a normal one with the ease that he showed me as he pushes the cabinet away. I lean and give him a quick kiss. He chuckles and leans on the door frame watching me run back to my room. “Damn you Yang Ae Soo.”

₰  ₰  ₰  ₰  ₰  ₰ 

It turned out that getting dressed and prepared for the ceremony isn’t easy as it looks. I was scolded when I get back but luckily, grandma was there to save me. They asked me to cleanse myself by taking a bath and I obediently did so because I feel guilty after what I did with Sehun. It turns out that they are expecting it to happen today but after the ceremony have concluded. But we already did it even before the ceremony started. If they knew it, I will really be beaten up into a pulp. 

When I finish bathing, they dressed me up with the most elegant dress I have ever seen. Afterwards, we are now headed to the hall where everyone is gathered. The moon is full today so I am in my demon form. They are actually shocked to see that I only have eight tails when in fact it should be nine. Sehun already pointed that out though. 

“When you hear your name being announced, you can now enter the hall dear.” Grandma says. She smiles and tuck a lock of my hair on my ear. “You’re very beautiful tonight Ae Soo. You look just like your mother.”

I smile and hold her hand. “Uncle told me that too.”

“The hundredth Gumiho, Lady Yang Ae Soo!” I hear my name being called and then the doors opened. A light flashes before my eyes and I’m not surprised with the people staring at me right now. I’m surprised that I’m the hundredth descendant in our clan. I guess that’s why everyone is making such a fuss about making this ceremony a huge deal huh? The number one hundred has always been special for our clan. I don’t know why though. I’m not that interested in my demon side not until I met the guy staring at me with a smile on his face at the end of the stairs. God, Sehun’s so handsome tonight too. 

I walk down the stairs and we both kept our eyes locked on each other as I close the gap between us. I hear whispers about how my tail is lacking one but I don’t care. I just want to get to the other side and hold Sehun right now. 

“You look breathtakingly beautiful.” He smiled taking my hand to his.

 “You look breathtakingly handsome too.” I say. He started leading me at the center where the moonlight is shining at its brightest but I stopped remembering something. “Wait, you’re not in your wolf form?”

“Yeah, I didn’t know that this can hold my transformation for a while.” He holds out a solid silver bracelet he has on his hand. “I might ask about this later on and see where I can buy one.” I chuckle. 

He continued to walk me at the center and we show courtesy to everyone by bowing to them. Then, I see Dad walk up towards us with Grandma on her side. 

Dad holds out his sword and Sehun kneels in front of him. Dad then taps both of Sehun’s shoulder with the end of his sword. “I, Yang Se Jong, the current leader of the fox clan, will now be proclaiming that you, Yoo Sehun, will be taking the current Gumiho, Yang Ae Soo, as your bride.” 

I watch as Sehun bowed in front of Dad, then to Grandma, then to the whole Fox clan and then to me. When he rises up to meet my eye, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. He bowed with so much respect to the people that I care for so much and I think I’ve fallen for him even more. “Ae Soo dear, take this knife. I need you to draw a blood where the reflection at the moonlight is.”

I nod taking the knife from Grandma and hold it against my palm. I make a cut on it and let my drop flow at the water placed on a container where it’s reflecting the moonlight. The moment my blood dropped on the water, it suddenly turned bluish-purple then I felt beads of light surround me. “W..What the-“

“That dear is the fox bead. It will now take on its full form now that you are a full pledged Gumiho.” My eyes dropped to Grandma then to the fox bead that is now forming as one. Once it is one, it went inside my body. The moment it does, I felt like something’s not right. Like something’s missing- with a gasp, I turn to my right feeling a strong presence like my body is telling me to go there. “All of you! Bow down and cheer before our princess!”

I hear everybody cheering but I’m left hanging with the urge to go where my body is telling me to go. “Ae Soo? What’s wrong?” I snap out of my thought when I feel a hand on mine. Sehun’s looking at me worried and I shake my head smiling. 

“It’s nothing.”

₰  ₰  ₰  ₰  ₰  ₰ 

After the ceremony, a party took place. It turns out that the members of the Wolf clan are here too. 

“Oh my gosh! Ae Soo!” 

“Ahjumma!” I run towards her and hugged her. “I didn’t know you’ll be here!”

She smiles and caressed the back of my hair. “I wouldn’t miss a special day for you Ae Soo. You look so beautiful right now.”

I smile thanking her then the guys run up to me with a hug. “Ae Soo!” Baekhyun hugs me tight and I chuckled. “That was so amazing! You look great in your demon form as always!”

“Thank you. I see that you’re wearing a suit again today.”

He grins. “Well, it is a special day.”

“I can count the days where he looks decent.” Kyungsoo added and we all laughed. 

“Thank you all for coming-“ a hand suddenly takes Baekhyun’s arm away from me. “Sehun.”

“I think that’s quite enough touching.” He looks at Baekhyun. 

“Aw, you’re being too clingy to your bride Sehun. Aren’t you just proud that you’re not in your four legs right now?” Baekhyun teased. I can see Sehun about to hit him when I grab his hand to stop him.

“Let’s not be aggressive tonight okay?” I say calming him down.

When everyone was at the table eating, Sehun takes me out from the hall and we make our way upstairs. “What’s wrong? Are you tired?” He stops walking and turns around so he’s facing me. He flashes a smile and placed his arm on my waist pulling me close to him. 

“You look tired.” I smile and hugged him back. 

“A bit.” He holds the back of my head and caresses it. 

“Something the matter? It looks like something’s bothering you for a while now.” I haven’t said a thing to him about earlier but he noticed.

 “Actually, it feels like my body’s telling me to go somewhere. I felt some kind of weird presence earlier at the ceremony.. like it’s telling me to go there.” I let our a silly life and shake my head. “But I guess that’s just me worrying about nothing.”

He lowers down and kisses my forehead for a while. I close my eyes and smile as I let him kiss me. “Just worry about anything. I’ll always be here to take it away anyway.” I smile and hug him tight. 

“I know that.” He steps back a little and his hands slides down to mine. I laugh. “What are you doing?”

“I’ve always wanted to dance with you.”

“I can’t dance.”

“I’ll be your guide Princess.”

“Whoa!” I chuckle when he grabs me by my waist and carried me for a while letting me step on his feet. “Oh my god! Sehun, I’m heavy and it’ll hurt you!”

“I’m fine.” 

He’s smiling at me warmly like he’s watching my eyes every second as we dance. When I get the hang of it, I step back from him and I danced on my own. It’s like we have a little world of our own. He twirls me around then placed his hands in front of me as he hugs me from behind. I laugh at his playfulness because I didn’t expect that he had this side of him. I feel him press his lips against my temples and I smile. The music has already ended but he’s not stopping. Everything is just so perfect right now and it’s scaring me.

“I’m not dreaming right?”

“It’s real.” He said in a low voice.

“I just hope this never ends.” He stops swaying and twirls me around again so I am now facing him. I chuckle as I stare at him.

“I have one more thing to show you. Are you still good?”

I nod. “Can this night get even better?” His smile fades then he lowers his forehead to mine. “Sehun?”

“I don’t know if it’ll be good but I know that you always wanted this so I just need you to be ready okay?”

He takes my hand and he leads me somewhere. When he stops, we’re at my room. He opens my door like he memorized every inch of this place. Then he grabs a flower that was placed near my window. He takes my hand but he doesn’t placed it there yet. “What’s this? Your scaring me Sehun.”

“My Mom is an expert in magic and I grew up watching her research about it. This flower is called Sangrea. It can let one see what one wants to see.” He holds the back of my head and I’m beginning to understand why he’s giving it to me. “It will only be an illusion but, you can see your mother Ae Soo.”