Chapter 11

“Looks like you don’t need it that badly?”

She was smiling, but Hisa held herself back, afraid drool might fall if she opened her mouth.

This was the most troublesome sacrifice she had ever encountered. She picked wrong. She really picked wrong. She should’ve listened to the shaman. This wasn’t someone she could handle. He cut his hair. And not just that, he cut it because he didn’t want to give it to her. That was just nasty.

Fwoosh.

That was as far as Hong Yeom-rang’s patience went.

He had already endured quite a lot. He let go of the hair he had been holding over the lamp. The ends caught fire at once and burned quickly. The smell of burning hair was sharp and foul. Instead of using it to lure Hisa any further, he chose to destroy the bait altogether. His face stayed calm.

“No!”

Hisa sprang up from her crouch and threw herself toward the burning lamp.

“Are you insane!”

Without caring about the heat, she grabbed the burning hair. She clutched the scorching ends with her bare hands. Hong Yeom-rang seized the back of her neck and yanked her up. Even then she refused to let go, so he forcefully tore it from her grasp and flung it away.

“Haa… haa.”

She was already starving, and the sudden rush had drained her. Her fingertips burned. The charred clump of hair, now no bigger than her palm, dropped onto the rock. Not even realizing she had been caught, Hisa struggled toward it.

“Why are you jumping into fire!”

His shout cracked down over her head like thunder.

“Why did you burn it!”

She shouted right back. If he wasn’t going to burn it, he should’ve just given it to her. How could he cut the hair his parents gave him and then burn it like that. Hisa had never met a man like this in her life. Now she understood why the shaman still feared him from his childhood.

“What are you yelling for like you did nothing wrong?”

“You unfilial bastard!”

“Yeah sure. Why not call me a real son of a b*tch while you’re at it.”

Hong Yeom-rang had been called unfilial since he was young. When he reported his father to the magistrate for the third time, he was called a bastard and driven out of the village. Compared to that, this girl’s anger sounded almost refined.

He had finally caught her, but she didn’t even have the strength to run. She struggled weakly, her movements slow. Her gaze wasn’t on him, but still fixed on the last of the burning hair.

Did she really crawl in here just to eat hair?

Then cutting it was worth it.

Now he knew for sure. When she stuffed his hair in her mouth and ran, it wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t a bluff. It was real. A monster that eats hair… As that thought crossed his mind, his eyes caught sight of her fingers, already blistering and swelling.

“Hey.”

He shook her by the back of the neck.

Her body sagged limply, like she had no bones at all. Once the hair was gone, she collapsed as if life itself had drained out of her. Only then did Hong Yeom-rang notice the cold sweat soaking the back of her neck in his grip.

He quickly tossed her onto the mat. He had already blocked the only exit. Standing with his back to it, he watched her curl into a tight ball on the mat, trembling. It was like a small red puddle had formed. Like a small animal hiding its head and thinking it was completely hidden, she buried her face in the long sleeve of the overcoat he had given her.

She was hungry.

She had used all her remaining strength to protect that hair.

Her fingers throbbed and burned. This wouldn’t kill her, so it was fine. The real problem was the hundred days a year when she needed to eat. She thought she could endure a few days without it. But watching that entire bundle of hair burn in front of her drove her into despair.

…How am I supposed to stay with him for three months?

She wanted to send him away. She almost wanted to tell the village to blame every misfortune on Hong Yeom-rang for the whole year. But then Hisa smacked her own forehead with her palm.

She couldn’t become like him. She already knew he had a terrible temper.

It was her fault for calling him here. Thinking like that wasn’t right.

Meanwhile, Hong Yeom-rang thought she was crying. At least until she suddenly smacked her own forehead. It turned red instantly as she blinked slowly.

“I can endure it. I can endure.”

“You act like I’ve gone bald or something.”

Hong Yeom-rang looked down at her and said. At that, she lifted her head sharply. His hair, though shorter, still reached below his ears. Without realizing it, Hisa licked her lower lip once. But this was harder than just grabbing a few strands and running.

“…You’re not bald.”

“I still have hair. And from now on, I’ll give it to you whenever I want.”

“You’re really going to give it?”

“On one condition. You become my servant.”

“Servant?”

“Open the forest. I’m leaving.”

“Oh… you want to go down.”

Hisa nodded.

But that wasn’t agreement. She simply understood that she needed hair, and he wanted to leave. Hong Yeom-rang didn’t want to stay in this strange place any longer. It was unsettling. Hisa was a monster that bewitched people and took their life, no, their hair. And yet she got hurt like a human and didn’t heal easily. She was full of contradictions. He didn’t want to waste any more time or emotion here.

He should’ve just ignored the village from the start.

He couldn’t understand why he had come back and decided to hunt a monster.

Hisa slowly pushed herself upright on the mat. Sometimes she moved like lightning, but most of the time she was this slow. Sitting there, she tilted her head and looked up at him. Her eyes gleamed strangely. Her pale lips curved into a mischievous smile.

“I don’t die from hunger. I just get starving enough to feel like I will. But you really want to leave, don’t you, Yeom-rang?”

As if unaware or uncaring about the blisters on her fingers, she bit down on her index finger again. It scraped at his nerves.

“Open the forest. Open it while I’m still asking nicely.”

“I don’t open or close the forest. What should we do…”

“What?”

“The goblins do it. If you want to leave, you have to find them and ask.”

…So there were monsters and goblins in this forest.

“What kind of place is this?”

The question slipped out of him.

“The sacrifice can’t leave the forest for a hundred days. That’s the rule.”

“Even if I try to leave right now?”

“I’m the only one who knows where the goblins are. So, Yeom-rang. Who’s the servant now?”

Hisa forced herself upright despite her empty stomach pulling her forward. Then she stretched lazily and asked him. This tiny girl who had been curled up starving just moments ago now spoke so boldly. Hong Yeom-rang was speechless.

He had never wanted to understand it this way, but this must be how his father felt when looking at him.

She had been licking her lips from hunger just moments ago, swallowing hard, and now she acted like this?

The boldness of it was almost absurd.

“So I’m the one at a disadvantage.”

“You’re the one who brought up being a servant. I just…”

“Alright then, miss. So how does this lowly servant get out of here, huh?”

Hong Yeom-rang grinned as he spat out a curse like a street thug. Then he addressed her politely as miss. Even though he spoke respectfully, his words were dripping with malice. It felt like if you placed a bowl at his feet, it would overflow with that malice.