Chapter 8

“You need to take it off and change. Even if you put it on over that, it’ll just get wet again.”

She felt both cold and heat, but it wouldn’t kill her. Still, seeing him bothered by her soaked clothes, she wanted to repay him for giving her something new. She should act like a person. Since Hong Yeom-rang treated her like one, she figured she should do the same.

Hisa quickly took off the overcoat and placed it on the cleanest mat in the cave. Then she yanked at the ties of her worn jeogori as if tearing it apart.

“…That…”

Hong Yeom-rang lost his words at the sight of her undoing her clothes without the slightest awareness of him, a man, being present. He turned his back immediately. All his senses gathered into his ears. The sound of the jeogori being pulled off and tossed aside, the heavier thud of the skirt dropping, all reached him whether he wanted to hear them or not.

He stared hard at the cave entrance.

He couldn’t act on his temper.

If he did, she would just look at him and cry, and he’d end up swallowing whatever he wanted to say.

He pressed a hand to his heated forehead.

“Yeom-rang, look at me.”

Excited from putting on the new clothes, especially that red silk overcoat that suited him so well, Hisa called him warmly. His eyes, still under his hand, turned cold in an instant.

“How do you know my name?”

He turned back and asked her in a sharp voice.

But the sight before him made it hard to look away.

The red overcoat dragged along the floor, and because it was made to be tied around a man’s frame, no matter how she adjusted it, half of her pale chest remained exposed. It was defenseless in a way that was impossible to ignore.

He’s being bewitched.

“Who in the village doesn’t know your name?”

“Then who told you to call me like that. I never gave you permission.”

The red overcoat even covered her ugly red fingertips. When she shrugged, one side slipped off her shoulder. Water still dripped from the ends of her wet hair. When her bitten fingers stained her lips with blood earlier, it had only been momentary, but now the contrast was unmistakable.

Hisa, so pale, looked even more like a monster dressed in red.

Like a bride wearing nothing but a long ceremonial robe.

“And you’re saying you’re not a monster?”

Half her chest exposed, she stared at him. Through the parted overcoat, her calves, knees, and white thighs were visible. There had to be a reason only young men were chosen. They said that woman, the so-called messenger of the mountain deity, spent a hundred days playing with them.

That was what Hong Yeom-rang had concluded when he learned he had been chosen as a sacrifice.

How could that not harm people.

He reached out and grabbed the scabbard, then moved his hand to the hilt.

“…Are you the one demanding young men be offered as sacrifices?”

There was no way desire wouldn’t rise. Heat pooled low in his body. A strange urge surged like lava, making him want to grab the woman on the mat right away. He had never failed to get what he wanted.

He could cut her down. That was why he had come here.

No matter how fragile she looked, even if she cried, it didn’t matter.

“For one hundred days a year. I send them down with riches, and they become happy.”

“Then what should I do. I don’t need riches.”

“Right. That’s why I don’t usually call noble young masters.”

Hisa shrugged again, bothered by the slipping overcoat. It slid even further, revealing the round tip of her breast. Her entire body was pale except for that one darker spot. Realizing his gaze wasn’t on her face, she looked down.

Her chest was almost fully exposed.

“Ah…”

A faint breath escaped her.

She had never really cared about things like this, but a man staring at her so openly was new. In the first place, Hisa had rarely even been noticed by the sacrifices. Calmly, she pulled the slipping overcoat back up. Even so, her cleavage remained visible.

“Weren’t you trying to drain my yang energy from the start? Then you should lower it more. If you’re going to tempt me, do it properly.”

He had misunderstood something badly.

“Do you even know how I take a man’s yang energy?”

Pretending to be human when she wasn’t was exhausting. She had just wanted to act like one since Hong Yeom-rang had given her food and clothes. But it couldn’t be helped. And all her attention had been fixed on him, so she was hungry. She walked toward him.

If she got cut, it would hurt.

If she got cut by Hong Yeom-rang, who had been kind to her, it might hurt even more. Still, she didn’t stop.

“Yeom-rang.”

She came right up to him, dragging the overcoat behind her, and looked up. He didn’t move. Her pale, wet face stared at him. Her eyelashes were still damp, as if she had been crying.

Her ugly fingers came close to his face.

No matter what she tried, he had the strength to stop her. He could push her away without even using his sword. Now that she wasn’t even hiding being a monster, he waited calmly for the moment she would reveal something unnatural.

“I…”

Her hand brushed past his eyes and moved higher.

Since he didn’t lower his head, she had to rise onto her toes and stretch as far as she could. What she grabbed was his hairpin. The moment she pulled it out, his tied hair fell loose all at once, cascading down his shoulders to his waist. Holding a handful of his now loose hair, Hisa grinned.

For the first time, hunger and desire appeared clearly in her eyes.

He instinctively drew his sword halfway. But she was faster. She grabbed a handful of his hair hanging at his waist.

“Ah!”

Just enough force to pull it out.

Usually, people cut hair, but she didn’t have time, so she yanked it out instead. Then she slipped past him without a sound. Her movement was so light he couldn’t even grab her. More than anything, it was completely unexpected.

He had thought she would try to wrap her arms around his neck, seduce him, or do something else. Only he had been preparing for something obscene. He had never imagined she would pull out his hair.

So fast. So sudden.

Gripping the long strands of his hair, she ran toward the cave entrance. Hong Yeom-rang chased after her a beat too late.

“Yeom-rang, I’ll enjoy this!”

She put the hair in her mouth.

Just before darting into the rain, she even called out cheerfully and disappeared again. The red overcoat, impossible to miss, was swallowed by the dark forest in an instant. Half-drawn sword in hand, Hong Yeom-rang shouted toward the woods.

“Hey! Come back out! You crazy monster bastard! Hey!”

His hair had been ripped out. And she had put it in her mouth and vanished like the wind. He shouted into the forest, but only the sound of rain answered.

“Crazy, what the f*ck, insane, what the hell is that…”

Every curse he knew spilled out.

Then he suddenly remembered how she had woken him earlier by playing with his hair.

That had been her goal from the start.

Not his body, full of yang energy.

His hair.

When he met her again, he didn’t even know how he would deal with her.

A being that didn’t harm people.

And one that ate human hair.

Was that harm or not.

The spot where his hair had been pulled throbbed painfully. And the realization that he had been toyed with made anger surge to his head. He had never been mocked like this in his life.

And f*ck, seriously, he had actually thought she would take his yang energy from his body.

And she had seen right through that thought and pulled his hair instead.

Hong Yeom-rang, of all people, had been made a fool of.

Not only had his thoughts been read, he had been played.

Thud.

Unable to hold back, he slammed his fist into the cave wall, even knowing it would only hurt him.

“Crazy… crazy woman. Ha, f*ck…”

His lower body was still half hard.