Unlike usual, when I would wake to my smartphone alarm, my eyes—naturally shut—opened to a stabbing headache.
Perhaps because I was still half-asleep, I began blinking my blurry eyes as usual, but each time, a throbbing pain flooded in. Still, perhaps this pitiful effort was somewhat helpful; my blurry vision gradually began to clear.
After this arduous effort, the first thing I saw was not the familiar wallpapered ceiling, but an unfamiliar ceiling supported by wooden beams, and the warmth of brilliant morning sunlight pouring onto my face.
Things unfamiliar to my daily life, where I’d wake at dawn every day to prepare for work. A coziness felt vividly, different from the unpleasant refreshment of waking after oversleeping….
Where is this? Where did I fall asleep and wake up? Yesterday too, I’d dealt with a customer lodging complaints for outlandish reasons before going home.
The moment I realized I’d woken up in an unfamiliar place, I tried to get up from where I’d been lying and look around, but.
“Wh… *keh-eck, keh-eck*…!”
It hurts!
A tingling pain, as if my whole body had cramped up. Far from getting up, I couldn’t even push away the blanket covering me and collapsed back onto the spot.
Even the inward breath I swallowed because of the pain hurt, so I coughed incessantly. Was my throat cracked from being so dry? Like a terminal patient in some movie, the cough showed no sign of stopping.
The sound coming from my cough was one I’d never heard in my life!
“*Keh-eck*…! Why is it… *keh-eck*! It hur—*ack*….”
The absurdity of wanting to stop because it hurt every time I coughed, yet having to cough precisely because it hurt. I felt like I would die coughing like this.
Even when I covered my mouth with my hand, the coughing sound only lessened slightly; rather, because I was covering it, my body bucked and hurt even more.
Feeling like something truly terrible would happen at this rate, I forced my body to move this way and that—though it hurt—to find a posture that minimized the coughing.
My head was heavier than usual. Moreover, every time I moved, my hair tangled and hurt!
Huh… it tangles?
Around the time tears welled up in my dry eyes, the coughing finally stopped. When the pain ceased, I felt my head growing cold.
My hair tangles…? Why would my hair tangle when I kept it short for work?
My mind, which had been unable to come to its senses due to the pain, suddenly calmed, and the sound of my heart beating small but fast filled my ears.
Come to think of it, my voice had been strange too. It was cracked and hoarse, but should I call it… clear and high-pitched?
I slowly removed the hand covering my mouth and checked.
Though blurry with welling tears, I saw a white hand. The rough scars from being cut and burned due to work had disappeared without a trace, and a slender, white hand had taken their place.
Thump. Thump.
The sound of my heart beating filled my head.
Like a fool who needlessly checks a wound and hurts more, the sensation of a changed body I felt upon seeing this hand that wasn’t mine crept up my spine.
The hand before my eyes began trembling so violently it looked pitiful. As if blood were draining away, the already-white hand turned pallid.
I’m scared. I don’t want to check. Until I check, it’s not certain, right?
Still, I have to check.
I slowly lowered my trembling hand and put it inside the blanket. My eyes clamped shut.
Though I already felt it, the fact I was about to confirm was too frightening. Like an ostrich sticking its head in a hole, hoping that what I feared might avoid me on its own—
But making my wish futile, something soft and large was caught. A chest so full it overflowed from my hand. On me.
Whipping my confused mind repeatedly, I tried to recall what had happened, but my strangely blurry memory ended with dozing off on the way home from work yesterday, and nothing else came to mind.
Could I be dreaming? Waking up to find I’d become a woman in a room I’d never seen before?
But the constant pain and the body heat and texture felt through my palm were so vivid that I felt sick.
Weren’t men creatures who cheered up when they touched a chest? Why was I feeling worse?
…Calm down. Nothing changes if I keep lying here.
I can worry about why I became a woman later. For now, I need to either get out of this room or figure out where this is. Let’s start by lifting this sick body.
“Huuhp!”
After a deep breath, I put in all my strength and barely managed to push the soft, thick blanket aside, but.
“*Heh-euk*… barely… the blanket….”
Just from pushing aside one blanket, my breath rose all the way to my throat, and I had to catch my breath for quite a while. If it had been even slightly heavier, I would have suffered through coughing hell again.
And the body that struggled this much just to move a blanket was, naturally.
“*Huk*… I can’t even stand properly….”
I couldn’t stand properly. My legs trembled like aspen leaves, as if even leaning against the wall to stand up was too much.
Leaning pathetically against the wall, I looked at the wall opposite where the door had been visible. It was far. Though it was just heading toward the door inside the room, I felt as if I were looking at a mountain peak. Could I even get there?
Should I crawl? No. If I collapsed from exhaustion along the way, I felt like I’d end up stranded in the middle of the room.
Should I check the window where sunlight was coming in instead? Yes, I should check the closer place before the far one. Mm-hmm. It’s definitely not because my shoulders would hurt from my chest while crawling.
The moment I finished my vulgar self-rationalization, I threw my body toward the window.
*Thud, crash*
I regretted it.
“U-heok! It hurts! *Keh-eck! Keh-eck!*”
It hurts. I should have just crawled….
Of course it would hurt to crash into the window frame. Why did I make this choice over sore shoulders?
Moreover, though I checked beyond the window with difficulty, it was all for nothing. Well-maintained trees, stone paths, a lake. The scenery of buildings I knew crowded together was nowhere to be seen.
Only a huge garden showing signs of meticulous care greeted me.
“Sigh. Just where is this place.”
Had I been possessed into some strange novel? If so, I’d rather someone say, “Hello. I’m a goddess,” and explain the situation.
Why am I in some place I don’t even know, having become a woman who’s sick everywhere, wearing something like a white jeoksam? Moreover, this jeoksam is so thin that my body’s outline is all vaguely visible, like a negligee.
It’s like I’m prey packaged obscenely to be offered as a sacrifice somewhere.
“Sigh… Then is someone going to come holding a blood-stained sickle or something?”
I felt inexplicably creeped out. If I really were a sacrifice, I’d made quite a commotion.
The door behind me might suddenly open, and someone might enter….
*Creak*
…The moment I thought that, I heard the sound of the door opening behind me.
What should I do? Don’t I look like I’m desperately trying to escape right now?
No. It’s not like I was kidnapped as a sacrifice; they might just be a kind homeowner who put me in sleepwear.
Hiding my anxious heart with effort, I slowly turned my head toward the sound to check the door.
There were two women looking this way.
Whether they had rushed over, they were slightly out of breath with an urgent air, and had expressions that looked surprised to see me….
Animal ears were attached atop their heads, and they wore black hanbok-style clothes reminiscent of maid outfits, with aprons heavily stained red.
The woman standing on the left was holding something like a headless bird in one hand, while the other held a kitchen knife dripping red liquid and was looking at me.
Kitchen knife? Blood? Huh?
An unpleasant silence and two fox ears twitching.
“I-I’ll go fetch someone!”
The one holding the bird broke the silence. Whether to call someone, she urgently left the spot.
The other one also seemed to come to her senses at those words.
“I-It’s dangerous! I’ll help you, so please come down slowly.”
The remaining fox seemed to be trying to calm me down and began speaking to me.
Like a zookeeper calming an agitated animal, she raised both hands and slowly approached me as if to say calm down, speaking in a gentle voice.
At a glance, she really looked like she was worried about me. To the point that, if not for the blood-stained kitchen knife and apron, I would have listened and gotten down from the window.
But she’s covered in blood and holding a kitchen knife.
Besides, she’s not even human. She has fox ears and a tail.
This isn’t normal.
My appearance too. That fox too. Nothing is normal.
If I’m caught with this frail body, can I escape?
No.
So… I have to run.
“Kyaaak! …My lady!”
I immediately threw my body out the window.
Though it wasn’t very high, I had forced my draped body to bend as if falling to get out, so my upper body hitting the floor screamed in pain.
It hurts. It hurts so much I want to curl up and whine. But I can’t stop. They’ll follow right behind me.
Was it because of fear?
The fact that I couldn’t even stand up straight to go out the door became a lie as I sprang up and started running forward.
Within a few steps I was quickly out of breath, and it felt like I could hear creaking sounds from my leg joints.
My body had been floundering from the start, and it felt like my legs might give out even now.
I’m out of breath.
My vision flickers.
How far did I run? Did I even run at all?
My heart beat wildly, demanding oxygen, but my body went *kuk-kuk*, unable to breathe properly as I went forward, until I hit something and could finally stop.
I leaned against it and swallowed my breath with wheezing sounds. But what had I hit? I didn’t really know, but it felt soft.
Wasn’t the fox woman chasing me?
I am… I am….
As my rough breathing subsided and my oxygen-fed head began to work, only then did I see what I was leaning against and standing before.
A giant mass made of white fur was looking at me with yellow-glowing pupils.
That mass was a fox.
Unlike those in human form, it was a giant white fox in completely animal form.
The white fox looks down at me.
A fox with pupils the size of a human head looks down at me.
I hear breathing.
The smell of saliva wafts.
The fox.
“Beloved?”
spoke to me.
“A… aaaah.”
I floundered vulgarly backward, trying to flee, but.
The fox’s foot stepped far ahead, blocking me.
That giant head approaches me.
Its protruding snout slowly opens.
*Drip.*
A warm stream flowed out between my trembling legs.
Am I going to be eaten? Am I really prey? Am I going to die?
Eaten. Eaten. Eaten eaten eaten….
***
One month ago, on the day when the wedding was not far off.
When I returned to the mansion after finishing my duties, Sua was nowhere to be seen.
She usually liked tending the garden, and since we’d decided to hold the wedding in the garden, she’d been working even harder at it, so I hadn’t been very worried.
She had collapsed in the garden, bleeding.
Though she was the one bleeding, it felt as if all the blood were draining from my own body.
Fortunately, according to the physician, her life was not in danger and she would soon regain consciousness.
Without those words, I wouldn’t have been able to wait quietly for her to wake and would have grabbed someone to hold them responsible, simply running wild.
If I had, how angry would she have been?
She usually smiled brightly, but when angry, even her own mother would tremble.
The wedding might have been canceled. How dreadful.
I survived thanks to a renowned physician diagnosing her quickly.
Thinking I’d surely have to repay him later, I was resting in Sua’s garden, basking in sunlight in my comfortable form.
At the same time as feeling something collide.
“K-eh… *keh-heuk*…”
Cracked and dull, but Sua’s voice reached me.
How long had it been since I heard this voice? Did she run to me immediately upon waking?
Seeing that Sua had regained consciousness after a month, that physician must be a noble being on the level of a deity rather than a renowned doctor. I should hire her as Sua’s personal physician.
While thinking that, her condition seemed strange. Wasn’t she trembling like a mouse that had met a snake?
Whenever her eyes met mine in this form, she would always smile broadly and come embrace me, so I had been watching for a moment.
“A. Aaaah.”
The moment she saw me, like a child, she peed herself and fainted.