The gumiho can feel the shift in energy as the lunar eclipse draws closer and closer. In wild anticipation of her hunt, she her lips, but that does nothing but intensify the ache in her belly. Sometimes the wait between hunts is as little as a few months. However, it’s been a long two and a half years since the fox’s last meal, so she’s promised herself to overindulge this time around. Though she has experienced many hunts in her extensive lifetime, her most memorable hunt was from eight decades ago. She had fed so well that hunt.

There are many preferred feeding grounds for gumihos. Long in the past, the fox had preferred to hide out in brothels where men would willingly line up for her. More frequently, she’s targeted bars and clubs when lonely, intoxicated men are willing to leave with any pretty face that will even look their way. However, she remembers her perfect hunt where the prey was more than abundant. It was—as she had once heard from some humans call the spread of food—a buffet.

Her most memorable hunt was at a boarding school.

While both can be rather stupid for a pretty woman, men could often be dangerous to gumihos should they ever be exposed, but infatuated teenage boys are wonderfully ignorant and easy to manipulate. Reminiscing about how she had disguised herself as a teacher to get closer to the students, the fox remembers how she stuffed her belly full of flesh and souls that hunt. She can’t wait to return to that location and repeat the same success as she once had.

Though the lunar eclipse only lasts for a few hours, the bridge to the mortal world will remain connected until the moon fully cycles into a new moon. And if all goes according to the fox’s plan, she won’t even need the full month to feed. Just a week at the boarding school will likely satiate her appetite for the next few years should it be a long wait for the next lunar eclipse.

While she reminisces about her prized conquest, she feels the abrupt change in the atmosphere. Her tails twitch with excitement as she feels the worlds bridge together in a sudden blast of energy.

Finally, it’s time to feast.

***

With the location of the boarding school embedded in her memory, the fox travels over the spirit bridge and warps herself into the city. When she lands onto the pavement, she grimaces as cold water splashes into her eyes and it takes her a moment to realize that it’s pouring rain. What she also quickly notices is that this is definitely not the location that she was looking for. Where there was once a boarding school in a rural area, in its place, is now a fully constructed street that’s lined with shops on either side of it.

She’s sure that she has warped to the correct location. The energy all around this area is hauntingly familiar, yet all of the structures and landscape look completely different. The fox curses under her breath, mad that she hadn’t considered the possibility that the school could be gone. Of course it’s gone! These restless humans are always tearing things out of the ground and replacing it with new ugly buildings.

She spits out some of the rain that’s pooled in her lips, furious that her stellar ‘buffet’ plan has been foiled. Had she known the boarding school wasn’t going to be an option, she would’ve much preferred going to a bigger city to visit the nightclubs there. Here though…

The fox looks around and can’t see any trace of humans or cars—never mind any night life around here. Knowing that she’s wasting precious time in her hunt, she deeply frowns while trying to consider the possibilities. If only she could handle it, she’d cross the bridge back to spirit realm, and then try again for a new location. Her soul can’t handle the strain of moving between worlds in such a short time period though.

She deeply sighs once she realizes that she’ll simply have to make do and just explore this area that she’s landed in. It could take a few days before she can find herself proper shelter and a hotspot to feed in, but maybe she’ll luck out and pick up a few stray men along the way—

The sudden sound of jingling bells and squeaky door hinges makes the gumiho whirl around on her heels in surprise.

“Hi there, a-are you okay?”

From one of the shops, the fox watches as a small figure opens up an umbrella before stepping outside. The gumiho tenses up as the human strides over to close the distance between them.

“Miss, are you okay?” the human asks again.

Once the figure is close enough, the fox slightly relaxes in her stance once she realizes that it’s a dainty woman standing before her. Even though the human is wrapped in a jacket, the fox can tell that her figure is slim and she’s a little bit shorter too, so hardly a threat if it comes to that. The girl’s blonde hair reaches a few inches past her shoulders and her eyes are dark, but look bright as they stare deeply at the fox.

The gumiho blinks some of the raindrops from her eyelashes as she contemplates on what to do. In all of her years of visiting the mortal realm, she suddenly realizes that she’s never had to deal with a woman before. She immediately wonders if she can compel women just like she can men, but what does she even need to compel a woman for? She could potentially pull from the human’s memories, piece together a trick, and compel this human to be lured away so that she may be turned into a meal—

“Are you okay?” the woman asks again, shuffling even closer so that she can shield both herself and the taller raven-haired woman from the icy rain with her umbrella. “Do you need help?”

The gumiho watches as the heat of the other woman’s breath turns into a puffy cloud in the freezing air. “Umm.” Stumped on what to say to the stranger, she stalls and some of the rain water from her lips. The fox rapidly blinks a few times, but eventually decides to tell the human something rather honest. “I’m afraid I’m…lost.”

“Lost?” the blonde asks. “Where were you going?”

“I…can’t remember.”

The human looks rather puzzled at the response, but even so, she replies, “Come inside. Let’s get you out of this rain first. It’s freezing tonight.”

The gumiho finds the stranger odd, but regardless, she follows the blonde’s invitation as the human gently takes the stranger by the bicep and tugs her towards the building.

***

The blonde leads the fox into a shop, places her umbrella into a bin, and then locks the door behind before they continue through. The gumiho glances around to take in as much information as she can of the shop, but the lights are all off, save for the one in the stairwell all the way in the back, which is where the girl is leading her to.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself,” the human suddenly says, glancing over her shoulder to look at the fox. “My name is Kim Minjeong.”

“Hello, Minjeong,” the gumiho politely replies.

Minjeong slows in her walk when that’s not quite the response that she had been expecting. “And you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. What’s your name?”

Given names aren’t a thing in the spirit world, so the fox combs through her memory. She’s used many identities when conversing with humans before, but as she thinks, she suddenly recalls a hauntingly familiar name, as if someone once called her it centuries ago.

“My name is Jimin.”

“Just Jimin?”

“I…don’t remember anything else,” the fox says, truly not able to remember if there was a surname attached to the given name that she’s just recalled.

With squeaking wet shoes, the pair climb the wooden steps to reach the human’s living quarters. Once they pa