Kim Tae Rin stood still for a moment, staring at Choi Yoon. She quickly came to her senses.

“Please sit down for now.”

Kim Tae Rin hurriedly pulled out a chair. As Choi Yoon was about to sit down absent-mindedly, he noticed the clean cushion and stepped back.

“I’m all wet right now…”

Kim Tae Rin removed the cushion from the chair and offered again.

“Please sit.”

As Choi Yoon shook his head, Kim Tae Rin pushed the chair forward and made him sit.

Choi Yoon wiped his face roughly with his sleeve. With disheveled hair and a flushed face, he looked up at Kim Tae Rin intently. His eyes were moist, perhaps from rainwater.

“I’m sorry for coming so late at night. The situation changed faster than I expected, and I judged that if I left here, the residents might be in danger…”

He said something more after that, but Kim Tae Rin didn’t listen.

She went straight up the stairs. She grabbed a thick, wide towel from the shelf in the second-floor bathroom. On her way out, she went back in and picked up one more.

Hugging them to her chest, she ran down to find Choi Yoon sitting awkwardly in the chair, looking at her with a bewildered expression.

Kim Tae Rin spread out a towel and covered Choi Yoon’s wet shoulders. She handed him the remaining one.

“Dry yourself. You’ll catch a cold.”

“…Thank you.”

Kim Tae Rin went straight into the kitchen. When she came out with hot milk generously mixed with honey, Choi Yoon was wiping his face with the towel. Rainwater was dripping from his wet hair.

He brushed back his hair and picked up the mug, then put it down immediately. His hands seemed too numb to move well. Sensing Kim Tae Rin’s gaze, Choi Yoon hid his pale hands under the towel on his lap.

“What happened?”

“Well…”

Choi Yoon cleared his throat. The excited look in his eyes somehow seemed a bit crazy.

“Tae Rin, let’s do a business together.”

“We didn’t talk about this when we parted earlier. Start from the beginning, slowly.”

She spoke as if coaxing him. Choi Yoon exhaled softly.

Kim Tae Rin pushed the mug of hot milk a little closer to Choi Yoon.

“Hold this. Your hands look red from the cold.”

Choi Yoon clumsily gripped the mug handle, then let go and wrapped both hands around the entire mug. Kim Tae Rin added,

“Drink all of that and then talk. I won’t listen to anything until then.”

Choi Yoon blinked. Then he lowered his gaze as if examining the contents of the mug. Just as she thought she saw a smile forming on his downcast face, Choi Yoon lifted the mug to his lips.

Suddenly, she realized it was the first time she had seen him eat or drink something. Yet somehow, it felt like she had seen it countless times before.

Choi Yoon’s eyes widened after cautiously tasting a sip of the hot milk.

“It’s very hot. Let it cool down before you drink.”

“What is this?”

“Milk with honey.”

Choi Yoon stared at the mug intently, then blew on it and drank in small sips.

As she watched his tense shoulders gradually relax, Kim Tae Rin realized where this familiar scene came from.

Choi Yoon was recreating the coffee commercial he had monopolized for so long right before her eyes. While Kim Tae Rin was seeing him drink something for the first time, it also wasn’t her first time seeing it. It was a strange feeling.

The steam rising from the milk made his disheveled hair on his forehead become fluffy.

Why did he come?

Choi Yoon had knocked on the door in the middle of the night, drenched in rain. Moreover, he was hurt. Out of courtesy, she could open the door and let him dry off.

But beyond that, she should be cautious.

What did he mean by offering money, and what was this talk of doing business?

Is he acting now? Trying to get something from me? She stopped there. There’s no way Choi Yoon would have anything to gain from me.

This person isn’t someone who should be walking around in the rain like this. Today just happened to turn out that way. Just happened. A person who has no need to gain anything from anyone, nor to ask for help.

Choi Yoon put down the mug.

Color had returned to his previously pale cheeks. His face had become moist, like a puppy regaining strength after getting a bowl of food. He fiddled with the empty mug before speaking.

“There’s a temporary checkpoint. It wasn’t there when I came in earlier.”

“A checkpoint?”

“The police were controlling entry and exit.”

“The police?”

Her heart sank.

There was a time when checkpoints were set up at every strategic point.

But that was a very long time ago. Before Kim Tae Rin was born, around the time when the war between humans and yokai had barely found a compromise. Humans set up checkpoints at key locations to control yokai, recording and managing those who came and went.

They don’t do that anymore. Yokai lived cowering under humans, and the checkpoints became useless. It’s been long gone now, so why now?

“They said they were searching. That a shapeshifter being transported to the Center had escaped.”

Her heart was pounding hard. A shapeshifter. Shapeshifters are rare. Escaping shapeshifters are even rarer. But why now of all times?

Choi Yoon didn’t seem to be lying. She could call a neighbor living at the entrance of the village right now to confirm if it was true.

“They said a state of emergency has been declared for all of Jangcheon, restricting entry and exit.”

Kim Tae Rin unconsciously gripped the edge of the table, then clasped her hands on her lap. It was hard to breathe.

“So you came back because of that. Because you couldn’t leave.”

Choi Yoon shook his head. He seemed almost calm now. There was an air of composure about him.

“No. I could leave. My identity is certain, after all.”

“Then why are you here…”

“There is no escaped shapeshifter. The government is using it as an excuse to seal off Jangcheon County.”

“Ah.”

Now it made sense. Just hearing the word ‘shapeshifter’ had made her too sensitive to judge rationally.

Kim Tae Rin said,

“So they’re trying to suppress the protests by locking down this area with a state of emergency? Then the government doesn’t even need to come down here to explain…”

“It will become a hot topic. Moreover, this is Jangcheon.”

Choi Yoon was calm. More composed than when holding a microphone on stage, he continued speaking.

“The residents here have already experienced being devastated by a shapeshifter once. For the survivors, it’s still ongoing. They will be more shocked than anyone at the news of a shapeshifter escaping.”

If Kim Tae Rin had seen Choi Yoon for the first time now, she would have thought he was strong.

But she had already seen Choi Yoon fluttering helplessly in front of a grave.

So his current attitude felt more worn and eroded than strong. As if he had let go of what was happening now to some extent.

Kim Tae Rin said quietly,

“In the end, they’ll end up supporting a full investigation. The people of Jangcheon County will provide justification.”

“The reason humans and yokai here have united to protest, unlike other regions, is because they are harmoniously intertwined as spouses, lovers, and friends. However, if they emphasize shapeshifters rather than yokai in the context of the full investigation, and if the threat of such shapeshifters becomes concrete, they will need a full investigation. Because it’s directly related to survival.”

Kim Tae Rin couldn’t think of anything particular to say. In any case, there was no place for shapeshifters to stand. But she had no intention of dying a dog’s death.

She didn’t want to explain to Choi Yoon why shapeshifters had to become shapeshifters. There was no way he could understand.

Kim Tae Rin said,

“Then you’ve remained in a dangerous place. Voluntarily.”

Choi Yoon nodded.

“If I just leave like this, who knows what might happen. It will be good for the residents here if I stay. I’ll act as a loudspeaker, immediately spreading every moment that happens in Jangcheon County. My presence ensures safety.”

“It’s not your duty. Normally, people would just leave. They wouldn’t have come down in the first place.”

For a moment, Choi Yoon seemed not to understand Kim Tae Rin’s words. Then he answered. Calmly.

“What’s normal has no meaning for me.”

“How long do you think the state of emergency will last for you to stay here? If you stay and the situation becomes serious, you might not even be able to leave Jangcheon County at all.”

“At the earliest, one month, at the latest, within three months.”

For a moment, Kim Tae Rin thought she had heard wrong.

But looking at Choi Yoon’s confident attitude, she strangely kept wanting to believe. Where did such optimism come from?

“We need to let the public know that there is no such thing as an escaped shapeshifter, that Sosul is safe, and that yokai are equal to humans. The faceless shapeshifter said to be escaping and wandering around should feel less threatening than specific yokai neighbors who feel like friends. That’s the only way the full investigation can set the right direction.”

Choi Yoon composed his expression. His voice gained strength.

“I have a proposal. I want to film you interacting with neighbors at the restaurant and broadcast it. If you’re okay with it, I’d like to help out at the restaurant too. I think it would be good for me to appear together in terms of creating buzz.”

Filming. Her face would be shown nationwide. Records would remain.

Living as a shapeshifter, she had extremely avoided exposure to media.

During her gumiho days, she had holed up in the orphanage kitchen. Those who knew her face then loved Kim Tae Rin enough not to reveal now that she was a gumiho, but there could be people who might recognize her. The risk was high.

But if she could earn money within the one to three months Choi Yoon guaranteed and leave South Korea, there was no better option.

“Why me of all people?”

“Because you’re pretty.”

She was at a loss for words. As if asking why she was asking such an obvious thing, Choi Yoon added nonchalantly,

“I like pretty things. I like them a lot. If I like something, I make sure to get it even if I have to put in effort. If you were an object, I would have bought you already, even if I had to pay extra.”

The words of the chef on the day she left the orphanage flashed through her mind.

‘You need to know that you’re pretty!’

Eyes full of concern, cursing the looks she was born with as a gumiho.

‘Gumiho are supposed to be pretty, but you’re especially, especially pretty, so life will be really, really hard for you. Always be careful!’

What kind of moment was this? A crisis to be careful of, or an opportunity to bet on?

Choi Yoon smiled faintly at Kim Tae Rin’s silence. Then the smile faded.

“It will be extremely dangerous. But I’ll endure and protect you no matter what. I’ll pay you as much compensation as you want. If you’re okay with it, I propose we collaborate.”

With an utterly serious face, he spoke in a firm voice.

“Lend me Kim Tae Rin and Buckwheat Flower Restaurant. Then I’ll try to win public opinion to our side.”

In fact, there was no other choice.

Kim Tae Rin chose to become a shapeshifter knowing all this isolation, and she desperately needs money to survive alone.

“I guarantee we’ll make a good team.”

Kim Tae Rin eagerly grasped the hand Choi Yoon extended. She said with force,

“Three months maximum. It can’t go beyond that period.”