Chaeyoung heaves out heavily, hand reaching up to wipe the sweat from her forehead. Long walks in the woods, that she can do, but mountain trekking is a different story. She misses the booth they sat in to travel from Kyoto to Korea just an hour ago. It might be a little nauseated, but at least she could sleep in it.

It is around ten in the morning when they reach an old wooden door under a large tree. The door looks like it's been abandoned here a long time ago, the paint has all worn off. The original red color of the door has mostly faded away, leaving only the light brown color of the wood. It leads to nowhere, just leaning against a side of the mountain. There is even a large gap between the door and the stonewall behind it. But Chaeyoung knows better. She can feel the hair on her back rises, sensing such powerful forces behind that door.

Junsu steps up, puts his hand on the door and whisper something. He then turns the doorknob 3 times left and 5 times right before stepping through the threshold and gesturing others to follow.

As soon as they crossed the threshold, it seems like they just entered another world. It isn’t a dark cave as Chaeyoung imagined, but what greets them is a vast space with grasslands and rows of trees on a gentle hillside. Another door catches Chaeyoung’s eyes, five times bigger and hundred times majestic than the door they just crossed. The door seems heavy, painted in orange red colour, much similar to a fox’s fur, guarded by two men standing at the side. They are neatly dressed in traditional clothes, long swords at their waist, and holding long spears. As they approached the door, the guards, who seem to recognize Junsu and Changmin, bow respectfully.

“Welcome back to the Kim family. May I ask who this lady is?”

"She is my partner." Changmin repeats the same thing he said to the border custom.

"Pleasure to meet you. Welcome to the Kim family." The two guards bow to Chaeyoung and she bows slightly in return. "I suppose you don’t mind the procedure?"

“It’s alright. Proceed.” Junsu's reply makes Chaeyoung frown in confusion. They never mentioned any procedure.

One of the guards presses somewhere, and mist is sprayed out in front of them, like the one at the grocery store she's seen before. What are they going to do? Moisturize her? While Chaeyoung is in utter confusion, Junsu steps forward under the mist. Nothing happens at first, then his previously dyed dark hair turns red, back to its original colour. When he turns back to signal Chaeyoung to pass though, she can see his eyes are as red as blood, and two fangs are slightly protruding from the red lips. Does this mist reveal their original form? As Chaeyoung walks past, she feels an itch in her ears and above her lips, then something lumpy from behind. It turns out her human ears have turned into the pointy cat ones, her tail and whiskers also grow back, while other parts remain in human form. It’s amazing and peculiar at the same time. She has never turned into this hybrid form before.

When she turns to look at Changmin, two deer antler-like horns have grown on his head, just about fifteen centimeters in length. His hands had also turned into something with scales and claws. Oddly enough, for a moment she couldn't tell which creature it was. Wait? Will they have to visit the Kim family in this form? Fortunately, Changmin seems to understand her worry and speaks.

“This mist will show people’s true form, to prevent unwanted visitors. Don’t worry, this only stays for half a minute.”

Amazed, she is tempted to ask for his real identity but stops herself just in time. He doesn’t seem to be fond of this topic.

“Please come in.”

When the two guards step aside for them to come in, Chaeyoung has completely turned back to her normal human state. She couldn’t help but marvel when they step inside the residence. This place is a complex of traditional Korean houses, surrounded by lakes and tall trees, shading their path. If the garden at Hirai's is well taken care of, the trees here look much wilder, like a small forest. They walk along the paved road, over a redwood bridge, and to a large house where the never-ending stream of humans and non-human come in and out. This seems to be the reception area.

Junsu leads them straight to the other side of the hall, where a man is seated, sipping his tea. He possesses a fair skin tone, with delicate but feminine appearance, making Chaeyoung almost mistake him with a gorgeous lady if not for his traditional hanbok for men. In some ways, he reminds her of Jaejoong, a wilder, scarier, more mischievous version of Jaejoong. Are all kitsune, no, gumiho – Chaeyoung corrects herself, they’re called gumiho in Korea - this beautiful, or is this in the blood of the Kim clan?

“Look who finally decided to show up. I almost finished this round of tea by myself.”

The two men beside her bow slightly to greet him, and Chaeyoung follows suit. Based on his clothes and seating, he seems to have a rather high status.

“Nice to see you again too, Heenim. Don’t you leave some tea for us? We have come all the way here and you drank all the tea.”

“You’re getting disrespectful every time I see you, Changmin, telling me to make tea for you? watch it, or I will make you prepare ten barrels of tea.”

“As long as you promise to drink it all.”

“The disrespect.” The seated man grumbles and turns to Chaeyoung. “Who’s this? Why don’t you introduce yourself?”

“She would if you didn’t talk so much. This is Chaeyoung, my partner. Chaeyoung, this is Heenim, Jaejoong’s brother and our uncle.”

"Told you to call me Heenim. Uncle sounds so old.” He waves his hand, still holding the thankfully empty teacup. “Sit.”

They all sit down on the bench opposite him, this time Chaeyoung sits on the edge so Changmin is in the middle, facing Heenim.

“It hasn’t been five year since the last time you came. You visit every five year, so why now? And who is this cat girl? Don’t tell me the partner bull, I know she’s not. You come here with other intentions, right?”

“How can we? Our fathers love this girl, so they want us to take her here, to visit the Kim family. Just like last month when you visited mainland China for the Qixi Festival[1]. Just visiting without any other purpose, right.” Junsu speaks out, causing Heenim to freeze in just a second before regaining his composure and chuckles.

“Jaejoong stays in one place, yet seems to know everything. Alright, stay and visit all you want.”

He glances to the sides and lowers his voice.

“But remember, don’t do any things that harm the family name, which took us years and lives to build. If you forget this, even the Japan border won’t be able to protect you.”

With that, he stands up and walks away. People bow down to him on the way out, but he just nods curtly at them before disappearing from the hall.

“Only if we get caught.” She hears Junsu murmur.

As if on cue, a teenage boy comes up to them and bows.

"Good morning. I will take you to your room. May I ask which line you are from?"

“Our father is Kim Jaejoong, Heenim’s brother. He has a house in the Nine-tail area.”

The teenage boy’s eyes widen comically, he hurriedly lowers his head before reaching to grab something in the small bag he carries.

"Please put this on." He gave each of them a round metal badge with a fox head in the center, surrounded by nine golden rays. "Please follow me. This way."

The boy leads the three along a paved road, to another area, separated from the first by a long wall and a large door, guarded on either side. This seems to be the living quarters of the family, with long rows of houses, practice fields and swimming pools. A bunch of kids, some perched on the parallel bars, some swimming in the pool, and a group of 5-6 years old kids run up to them and sniff.

"You don't smell like foxes." The oldest, about 8-9 years old, speaks loudly. "This is a family area. Hyung, why did you bring them here?"

"Don't make a fuss." The teenager chides. "I'm taking them to the Nine-Tails."

"Nine-tailed area? But only nine-tailed foxes and families can stay in that area."

They don’t seem to be afraid but more curious, walking close to sniff them. A kid sniffs Chaeyoung before he steps back, bares his tiny fangs and grimaces.

“A cat.”

The crowd huddles around Chaeyoung even more, sniffing and discussing as if she wasn’t there.

“Do cats have nine tails?”

“Legends say so, but they can never be as strong as us.” (Chaeyoung growls at the comment)

“Ya!” It’s the teenage boy that scolds them. “Hush. They’re Heenim’s niece and nephews.”

"Wow." The children burst out. "He's scary."

"Does he have siblings? Why did we never hear of them?"

"I heard that..."

While the children are gossiping, the teenage boy quickly leads them on.

"Sorry. The kids don't know better." The boy scratches his head. "Actually, I was also surprised. I thought you were just visitors. Because..."

The boy falls silent, realizing how disrespectful his words were. He covers his mouth and lowers his head.

"I understand. Even though we weren't born into the Kim family, our names were all written in the genealogy a long time ago."

The boy bows awkwardly and thanks them for being understanding before continuing. He leads them through another area with a wooden sign "Nine-tails" written in gilded Chinese characters on a red velvet background, next to a symbol identical to the one they are wearing on their chest. On either side of the walkway are traditional houses, each having a small front yard. The further they go, the more spacious and splendid the house becomes. They stop in front of a rather large traditional house, with typical white walls and rows of red tiles near the end of the road. There is a small gold sign in front of the gate, with Kim Jaejoong’s name neatly written in both Chinese and Korean letters. The boy bows again.

"Welcome back to the Kim family. I bid you farewell."