i'm running out of next haha u-u" xD i need to write on gyumiho but i'm planning to write another small bump chapter soon. "but you just updated sb??? omg!!" yes :-) i'm deeply determined!

now it's time for y'all to enjoy another long update of this. i didn't want to cut it off midway, so i stuck with the way i had divided the part previously while writing gyumiho :3

Sunggyu jumped awake when a hand shook him by the shoulder. He looked at Woohyun with wide eyes. “Did I fall asleep? How long was I gone?”

The human smiled. “Not for long. I just returned actually and I must say you gave me a shock. I was close to calling an ambulance when I saw your head on the table. Good thing you were just taking a nap.”

A bag was put on the table in front of him. “I went to the pharmacy to get you something against the pain. I didn’t know where you’re hurting but you kept rubbing your temples and your hand must hurt from pulling the car door open like that, so I just got you some general painkillers. And I also got a water bottle for you.”

The human showed him how to open the box with the medicine and put the first pill in his hand. “Swallow it with some water. It’s pretty obvious but I’m never sure with you, to be honest.”

Sunggyu did as told, although he felt weird swallowing human medicine. One didn’t do much, so he quickly threw another one into his mouth, which Woohyun scolded him for. “Don’t take too many. They need a while until they take effect. I don’t need you to die from an overdose.”

“Where did you get these?” He asked curiously. If they proved to be useful, he had to know where to get new ones.

Woohyun pointed at a shop across the street. “At the pharmacy, obviously. I also met one of the paramedics on the sidewalk. He made me give him my contact information. He said he’ll forward it to the police. They need our witness statements. He also asked me to thank you for opening the door for them. They don’t know how you did it but you’ve saved that girl’s life and probably her mother’s as well. Both of them are on the way to the hospital.”

The young man sat down on another chair. “So tell me – how did you open that door?”

He sighed and took another sip of water to buy some time. Water out of bottles. Humans are really strange... “Honestly, I don’t know. I just knew the baby was in danger and I wanted to do everything in my power to save her. Jumon taught me not to look away when I see someone in need. He said: When you see someone in need of help and you can help, you have to do it. When you see someone in need of help and you can’t do anything, you should still try and help that person. Never look away.”

Woohyun looked at him in awe. “Jumon must’ve been an amazing person. Is your memory returning?”

If only he had helped himself as well and not just others… Sunggyu fought the sadness creeping into his heart. “I just remembered what he said to me when I saw that scene in front of me. I’m sorry. Everything else is still fuzzy…”

“It’s fine. At least your memories are slowly returning.” Woohyun sighed and looked outside with a worried expression. “We still need to go to the police…”

Sunggyu noticed the human’s hands were shaking and instinctively reached out to wrap his hands around Woohyun’s. He could scent the young man’s fear in the air. The gumiho in him found the fragrance delicious but for Sunggyu it was saddening. Of course you would be shocked after almost dying. Sunggyu had no doubt the force of the collision would’ve killed at least Woohyun, if not both of them. The idea of getting crushed against a wall by something so big and fast was awfully frightening. With his full power, Sunggyu would’ve been able to survive the crash with ease. He could’ve thrown that car in the air with a wave of his hand or burn it to the ground with his fox fire. But now…

“Maybe we can go home instead?” Sunggyu suggested carefully. It was obvious Woohyun didn’t want to go to the police station either. “I feel like I’m going to fall asleep again any moment and I’m a little…shaken from the incident.”

Honestly, he was telling the truth, although a part of him desperately wanted to be home just to keep Woohyun safe. The gumiho wanted to trap Woohyun in that apartment and never let him go outside again. They hadn’t even managed to be outside for a few hours before an accident had occurred. When would the next attempt on Woohyun’s life be? Sunggyu was too anxious outside. There were too many possibilities, too many dangers.

Woohyun hesitated. After a moment, he pulled his hands away and shook his head. “I know it’s hard but we have to do this. Come on. I’m sure nothing is going to happen.”

Grudgingly, Sunggyu followed the man outside. They weren’t going home but his mood brightened up a little when Woohyun put an arm around him again to support him as they walked. Being so close to his human made the fox happy and he could protect Woohyun all the better like this. Sunggyu would protect him with his body if he had to.

It turned out the police station wasn’t much further away thankfully. Sunggyu felt dread as Woohyun brought him inside. He was scared of these policemen. They sounded like the guards of the modern time and guards had never liked Sunggyu very much. What if they arrested him for being a suspicious person and kept him away from Woohyun? Or maybe they would kill him if they found out why he had really been able to pull the metal door open with pure strength. Humans had never liked those who were different; be it monsters or those with magic.

Woohyun dragged him to a bored looking guy in uniform who sat at the entrance. He explained they were here to give their statements as witnesses and also to report Sunggyu’s accident. The fox looked around the place as Woohyun talked to the officer (he learned that was what they were called). There were many people, especially those in uniform, and he spotted strange weapons on their belts. At least Sunggyu guessed they were weapons. Guards were never unarmed in his time and he was sure that was the same even a thousand years later.

“Please go to room 045. Someone will be with you in a while to take your statements. He’ll also check the other thing.” The officer said as he scanned Sunggyu up and down. The gumiho resisted the urge to set the man’s stupid hat on fire. What are you looking at, human?

Giving statements turned out to be harmless but boring and exhausting. Sunggyu recounted the events when Woohyun was done, though he kept to himself that he had used his powers to enable their escape. As he talked about the accident, the fox wondered once again why they would go as far as endangering the lives of innocent humans to kill Woohyun. There was no doubt in his mind that something not human had caused this incident. The mother would’ve had no reason to kill Woohyun or even to risk her daughter’s life for such a thing. Her panic had been real in the car. For them it was easy to manipulate humans and manipulative they were. Even Sunggyu got disabled by the witch. He knew she wasn’t what humans called a witch but he had nothing else to call her. Humans called people who did ‘magical’ and inexplicable things witches. That was exactly what she did. But if she could already disable a gumiho and there was someone more dangerous than her, then Sunggyu was really worried.

“Did one of you see why the mother lost control of her car perhaps?” The woman on the other side of the table asked them. Both of them shook their heads. “Okay, thank you. For now those are all the questions I have regarding the accident. Now, you’ve also mentioned there was something else you wanted to report?”

Woohyun nodded. “My friends and I were out camping yesterday. When we got into the car to drive back home, my friend accidentally hit someone with his car. We didn’t see where he came from but suddenly he was there and a crash happened. I think my friend already reported the incident to the insurance company.”

“And the person your friend’s car hit is him?” She asked in obvious confusion and pointed at Sunggyu, who only yawned from boredom that moment.

“Yes…we wanted to report the whole thing but the hospital didn’t know who he was and we didn’t know either. And, well, he doesn’t remember…” The young man glanced at Sunggyu.

The fox did his best to look sorrowful. He let a bit of his magic seep into the skin of his face to make him look more enticing to the woman. It was a good, old gumiho trick to get human’s to believe their every word. They were so easy to manipulate. “All I remember is waking up in the hospital.”

“No papers, nothing?” The lady asked as she continued to type things into her computer.

Woohyun shook his head. “But he remembers small things from time to time. He thought coming to Seoul would jog his memory but he still doesn’t know where he lives or if he has any family. Can you perhaps check if he’s on any missing person list? When we found him… Well, it looked like he had been living in the wilderness for a while.”

She raised an eyebrow at his last words and looked at Sunggyu again. “I can try checking the lists but it might take a while. I’ll take a picture of you and we’ll compare it to those in our database. Please tell me everything you remember as it might help us with finding out your identity. We’ll also take your fingerprint just in case.”

So many words that confused Sunggyu but Woohyun didn’t seem to be worried. If his human wasn’t worried, then the gumiho wasn’t either. He told the lady “everything” he remembered, like his dead lover being called Jumon or that he had some connection to Seoul. Then they made him put his thumb on some strange device. Whatever it was supposed to do, it didn’t work. The device couldn’t read his so-called ‘fingerprint’.

“I don’t understand…” The lady muttered. “Maybe the device is broken?”

Sunggyu looked at the device and then at his thumb in fascination. He leaned closer to Woohyun. “What’s going on?”

His human knew by now that Sunggyu often asked questions about the most obvious things. “Everyone has a unique fingerprint that belongs to only them and sometimes it helps the police with finding…people.”

“Oh…” Sunggyu looked at his thumb up close and then glanced at Woohyun’s.

There really were tiny, thin lines on the human’s fingertips. The gumiho didn’t have them, though. His kind had always copied how human’s looked but often enough they were sloppy with the details, which caused a lot of them to be exposed and killed or hunted down. Sunggyu had always fought his disguise was perfect but this was an obvious oversight. He thought about his fingertips and if he should give them a pattern too, but the fox wasn’t sure what pattern he should use. Woohyun told him it was unique for every human, so copying it from someone was probably off the table.

“It must be broken.” He casually agreed with the woman.

She gave him a look but he met her eyes. He smiled like he trying to lure her in for a meal and Sunggyu saw her suspicions crumble. “You’re right. Let’s do the photo next.”

He was told to stand in front of a wall and Sunggyu stood there anxiously. Woohyun was still sitting in his chair. The human gave him an amused smile when he saw Sunggyu’s face. “Relax, it’s just a picture. I’m sorry, miss, he really remembers nothing.”

Sunggyu relaxed his face as best as he could but then there was a sudden explosion of light that blinded him. He gasped and covered his eyes. “What is this magic! You’ve blinded me, h