An Epilogue.

And now they lie side by side: her eyes were closed, face looking upward. He had his sight transfixed on her profile, blue and glowing, illuminated by the moonlight.

"Don't stare," her voice was coarse and soft. "I have grown so old now."

"Hmm?" hums Sehun questioningly. She has indeed changed physically. Se Jeong used to have golden hair during her youth. She had kept it long back in the day, it would flow freely as she walked; and when Spring came (her favorite season most of all) there would be flowers blooming between its strands.

This is how he sees her the first time.

 

Five hundred years ago, the Earth deity Se Jeong and the White Fox Demon Se Hun, met.

 

He grins. "You have indeed changed," his agreement prompts Se Jeong to protest. But it was as he expected. He had always loved teasing her.

Her hand attempts to unclasp from his so he tightens his hold, then, gently squeezes it to mean: I was kidding! You know how I fool around!

Of course this she immediately understands. This is how they have always been, afterall: less with words, more with actions.

"No," he shakes his head. "You have become more beautiful than you were yesterday," he continues, half-teasing and half-confessing.

"Sly fox," says Se Jeong in mild retaliation.

 

Back then he was well-known to be the mischievous fox who banded together with eight other half-demons. They wanted nothing but to wreak havoc and reign supreme. Until one Spring day, lured by a hymn so calming, Se Hun accidentally crosses the border between his and her world.

 

They have been silent for several minutes now refusing to move. The surrounding was kept still too. It is as if neither of them wanted time to pass. Time itself was unwilling to do so, mourning it seems to their impending parting.

A tear manages to escape from the corner of her eye and Se Hun's breathing halts. The sight of her crying was something he will never get used to. It will always bring an ache to his heart.

 

She flitters about celebrating the coming of Spring—the 12th of April! she notes later on as she points at the calendar she put up on their wall.
Se Jeong estimated it would have been the day their fates crossed. "I can feel it is so," she tells him firmly. Se Hun only nods in resignation.
Whatever she says, thinks Se Hun. Who was he to doubt a former Earth deity? He was only a half-demon who gave up everything to be with her.

 

"Do you regret this?" she asks.

"This?"

"This. Losing your friends, leaving your world... getting old?"

Se Hun uses his free hand to wipe the trail of tears on her cheeks. The taut skin from his glory years have now wrinkled, the strength he had now dwindled. At least his hair remained white. Although, because he is annoyingly meticulous, he demands the distinction that it has turned from Silver White to Whitish Gray.

"I have never once regretted choosing this life with you." He professes with all the honesty this world can offer. "I told you that day, didn't I?"

 

"If I am to live for thousands of years more without you, then I have no need for it.
I would rather have one lifetime filled with days of being together with you."

 

"But I will be gone soon," Se Jeong laments. But this, he already knows. She has been wilting day by day, slowly dying, as all mortals do.

"Don't worry about that yet." He reminds her once again. She has always worried for things that are yet to happen.

"We have already spent one lifetime together, Se Jeong-ah." Se Hun moves at last. He wraps an arm around her and says, "But if you wait just a bit for me," then plants a soft kiss on her temple. "Let's spend another lifetime together once more."

 

° ° °

 

"Hi everyone! Let's have our cast introduce themselves first," the man in the middle of the long table begins.

 

"Ah yes, hi I'm Yoo Jaesuk"

 

"Ahn Jaewook."

 

"Kim Jongmin."

 

"Lee Kwangsoo."

 

"Lee Seunggi."

 

"Park Minyoung."

 

"Oh Sehun."

 

"I'm Kim Sejeong! Thank you!"

 

'If you wait just a bit for me…'

 

Sejeong looks at the man beside her and recognizes him as her senior. "Sunbaenim," she whispers at him.

Shyly and a bit confused, Sehun looks at her. "Nice to meet you! Please take care of me!"

 

'Let's spend another lifetime together once more.'

 

End.