Gangwon Province-South Korea
One of the key players in my study of the kumiho was the orphan boy I had encountered. A village favorite, he was very charismatic and intelligent. It was certainly hard to believe that he himself had been a kumiho all along, hiding in plain sight. But once I found out, I had been intrigued since I started having suspicions around his involvement, particularly with the death of Soo-Min. In my general study, I have omitted many details for the sake of focusing on kumihos in general. I did not mention what had been done in the village days, and that had been spending time with Soo-Min and the boy whose name I did not know. His name, I later found out, is Myung-Dae. How I found out will be revealed later.
The behavior of Myung-Dae as a simple child seemed a little overly mature. He was as playful as most children his age, but far too intelligent and had already decided that he would spend the rest of his life with Soo-Min. He was very affectionate with Soo-Min and seemed to adore holding her hand, watching out for her, and staying close to her in general. From what I saw, the two were inseperable to the point that Soo-Min had to tell him she needed to leave or she was tired of holding his hand. It seemed that Myung-Dae lived to make her happy, never once going against anything she said, though he did look rather pouty when told to let her hand go. At the moment it seemed amusing, though afterwards it struck me as odd. Soo-Min herself was a very lively child. She was almost as brave as Myung-Dae, despite her father’s warnings to be careful. On numerous occasions she had tried following us, but I thought the care of two children in such a dangerous expedition would be bad and Myung-Dae seemed to agree with me. It was the one thing he insisted on going against her for, and would refuse to move another inch until she had gone back to the village. It was clear that he cared about Soo-Min’s health, wellbeing, and happiness. So how could I have my suspicions it had been him who had killed her? Luckily for me, Myung-Dae is a very upfront kumiho who isn’t afraid of hiding much. The day he had revealed his true nature to me, I had asked him if he knew anything about Soo-Min’s death. It was only natural to ask, since it meant that he was part of the pack he helped me study and all of them were clear prime suspects. Of course, this was when he was over his mourning period. It shocked me to find out he no longer treated her death with remorse and only gestured at me to come closer so he could share his secret. I played along and leaned in, when he whispered the following words:
“She told me she liked me a lot. So I had to take care of it.”
For some reason, this had begun to distress Myung terribly, but not for the reason I thought. He was lamenting, I found out later, because he had found out she wasn’t the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. It was then that I realized that this whole time I’ve been traveling close and alone with an actual kumiho who could at any point turn on me and attack me. He could have even revealed me to his pack and I’d probably have no chance against all of them at once. Telling me I was lucky he was even giving me his time started making sense. Then I wondered if this peculiar kumiho perhaps only fed on people he had developed an attachment to. He wouldn’t tell me and simply scowled or turned into a fox whenever I brought up his pecculiar behavior. It seemed that even he couldn’t explain it, actually, and hated not having the answers I wanted.
Of course this had at last pushed me to talk to another kumiho. And I had been caught with the desire to talk to the nine-tailed kumiho since I first learned about her, so I decided to try it out. But how would I catch her without the pack? I decided the best course of action was to try at those rumors, that Won-Suk had been wedded to an actual kumiho and hoped that it had been the nine-tailed one. It was grasping at nothing, but I decided to approach him. He did not seem to be completely aware of his surroundings, and when he stared at me, it seemed like he couldn’t see that I was actually there. It was only when I mentioned his wife, that he seemed to have any reaction, and it was a negative one since he tried to yell and leave. But I remained persistent and assured Won-Suk that I would make it well worth his time if he wanted something in return for his troubles. He reluctantly agreed, but told me to be sure to keep my distance and that he’d stay close to the door to make sure she didn’t do anything.
If anything, this had supported the rumors.
His home was a dark secluded one. It seemed to be isolated by the other homes in the village, as if this renovation had occurred rather recently. He hobbled in and invited me to follow. The villagers had told me he was once one of the most handsome men of the village but ever since his marriage, his looks had drained slowly. Won-Suk’s house for the most part, was dirty and uncared for, but he didn’t seem to care about a lot and only led me to the back room, where he said his wife rested before exploring out. He didn’t bother explaining what “exploring out” meant. Won-Suk told me to wait a moment before going into the room. There was silence, then he came out and told me I could go in.
You may say that in that moment, I believed in good luck. Sure enough, the woman before me was the same exact one that had shifted into that terribly awe-striking form. She looked at me through narrowed eyes, sitting in an upright position on top of her own nine tails and barely flicked her wrist as a gesture for me to sit down. The odd intoxicating attraction I had felt for her at night was not there, perhaps because she did not bother to cast an illusion in her own home. Nevertheless, I did feel a sort of attraction to her regardless, perhaps a natural alluring draw that kumihos carry as predators to prey. The room was stifled by silence, her eyes flickering at me as she drank some tea. Her forehead was not hidden so I noticed strange markings akin to the ones she had in her grand form that night and felt the need to touch them and see what would happen. But that was clearly out of the question. It was clear she was waiting on me to speak.
Asking about a member of her pack without letting her know I’ve been studying her proved to be easier than I thought. Of course this was done after some flirtatious banter, which felt odd considering her husband was right outside but I decided to follow her suite and compliment her as much as she needed. I then told her of the nature of my visit, and how her species had intrigued me. At this point, my explanation came off as flattery and she accepted it with grace. She told me that as for now, she was the leader of the pack, though to be honest they weren’t much of a pack. But she knew enough about all of them to help me.
She also said that if she helped me, I owed her. Far too accustomed to this type of scenario, I made sure to know exactly what that entails. I will not discuss the details in this entry.
After I had accepted my end of the bargain, she revealed her name to be So-Yeung. As I brushed her hair, she confided in me that I was right, Myung-Dae had a peculiar behavior. She said that even the fact that he chose to have a male form was odd to them, but aside from that, he was delusional. So-Yeung told me that he was an able hunter as they were, and that he was capable of tricking people and feasting on them just as easily as the rest. He did participate on the grave raids as well. But unlike them, he was on the fence when it came to emotions. She explained, as she gestured to the door, that she had married for the sake of ruining her husband’s life and simple convenience, but she would stay married to him until he died. So-Yeung then explained the behavior of another in their pack. Min-Ji was on her path to becoming human because she actually fell in love with a human in a nearby village and was willing to give up her way for him. Though this is rare, So-Yeung told me, it is not totally uncommon. The majority of kumihos looked at things like love as So-Yeung did, but the rest who were considered weak willed were expected to be like Min-Ji. Myung-Dae, however, was a special case.
I began to understand why kumihos were supposed to be considered completely evil, and once again was approached with this idea of a “special” kumiho. I was so lost in my thoughts that I did not notice So-Yeung was slowly turning on me and carefully wrapping herself around me until her husband came in to restrain her back to her sitting spot. She glared at him, then at me, before continuing her explanation. I decided her hair was good enough as it was and gave myself space from her on the other side of the room.
Then I understood what little I could of Myung-Dae’s mind. Myung-Dae was quick to fall into infatuation, though he was picky when it came on who he would fall in love with. “But did he really fall in love?” I asked, because at that point it seemed to me that he was simply a very good actor. Especially during the funeral. Of course So-Yeung was in a bitter mood from not killing me and hated being interrupted so she simply glared at me until I apologized enough. She continued, stating that yes, it honestly was true love, though she had no idea how. She said he enjoyed the feeling of following after the person of his choice and got excited over every little stupid thing they did together. He really gave his all to whoever he chose, and it was bothersome. She said things became fun the moment the person he pined for wanted things to get serious. Proclamations of love, speaking of future plans of marriage, or, in Soo-Min’s unfortunate case, really really liking someone. So-Yeung started laughing a bit and told me that she wasn’t sure what exactly went on in his head at the moment, but he becomes volatile and rips the person who was his interest to shreds, hence, Soo-Min’s unidentifiable corpse. So-Yeung started stretching at this point, a small sigh emitting from her as she began to smoke from a long elegant pipe. She said that it did not connect in his head that he was the one that murdered whoever he had chosen. He would eat their liver and heart, sure, but he would weep over them and it was all very genuine for a couple of days, as I had experienced. But after that, if they were to be brought up again, he speaks about them simply as if they parted ways and they hadn’t died. And any hint of remorse comes from the fact that he didn’t find his true love yet more than them being dead. She grew annoyed at me when I asked to explain further, and snapped that she was not in his head, so she didn’t know what caused him to go in such a violent fit and then forget about it. So-Yeung then blew smoke in my face and told me to leave because all this talk made her hungry and if I didn’t, I would be her next meal. I complied, but was met with her final words
“Maybe he really is just looking for the perfect moment with the perfect person.”
But to kill someone who didn’t match the description felt somewhat odd. I thanked the husband, gave him some money and two potions for aide and left, my feelings about the odd little guide that had helped me for what seemed a long time were conflicted.
The day I left the village, I HAD caught a glimpse of Myung, though it was clear he was not going to say bye and I was too far away to try. He had been chasing a young boy, the two laughing about. Myung-Dae’s face was carefree and with the same admiration he had shown for Soo-Min. As anyone in my field of study knows, intervention is discouraged so I left with no warning to the child, head muddled over the recent activities in the past two days. So-Yeung’s final words still rang in my head.
Well, I’m off to the Philippines probably. I heard something about these half-vampires deemed Manananggal.
Henry Paige