admit I was very intrigued to meet you. Junu’s new great love.”
Somin’s breath hitched, but she kept her face impassive. “Junu and I aren’t that serious.”
Sinhye laughed. “You think just because I’ve been trapped away for centuries, I can’t see what’s right in front of me? I’ve been watching you all the past two days as your friend unwittingly carried me around. I’ve seen how he looks at you. How he talks about you.”
Somin’s lips pressed into a thin line. This wasn’t exactly a topic she wanted to talk about with an evil spirit possessing her best friend.
“Why are we here?” Somin finally asked. “What do you want?”
“I want the people who trapped me to pay!” Sinhye shouted. “Starting with your boyfriend.”
“You killed him,” Somin said, unable to hold back her anger. “You trapped his soul instead of letting him move on. You had the shaman turn him into a dokkaebi. He lost everything because of that. Wasn’t that enough?”
“This is the problem with humans. You see everything that’s different from you as monstrous, as lesser. Do you know where the first dokkaebi came from?”
“What?” Somin frowned.
“The first dokkaebi was a mix of man and spirit. A king once loved a lady, but she was already married. But, as powerful men are wont to do, he couldn’t let go of something he wanted. Something he coveted. And so, even after he died, he desired this lady. He came to her as a spirit, and she became with child. The first dokkaebi. A coming together of two worlds. A dokkaebi is not a monster because he is evil; he is seen as evil because people do not understand him.” Sinhye shrugged. “What is so wrong about making Junu a dokkaebi? What is so wrong about it except that he is no longer human?”
Somin shook her head. She wouldn’t let Sinhye’s pretty words distract her. She wouldn’t let herself be confused. “You took a choice away from him. You made him something he never chose to be.”
“And greedy, lustful men made me what I didn’t choose to be,” Sinhye snapped, and the look in her eyes was enough to have Somin shrink back. “Junu was far from the only victim.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Somin asked despite herself.
“When I lived, if women were beautiful, we were both coveted and punished.”
“I don’t need a history lesson,” Somin said. Especially not one that would soften her to the evil thing inside her best friend. She tried to keep her heart hard. Tried to keep it cold.
“Everything that happened to me happened because I was seen as property. A sansin wanted me, but I loved Junu. I turned the mountain god down. I wanted a simple life, a mortal one with the boy I loved. And for that horrible crime.” She paused, let the words sink in. “For that crime, he cursed me. He convinced me that I could gain my mortality only if I ate one hundred livers for one hundred days. Instead it cursed me and all who came after to be immortal monsters.”
“Those who came after you?” Somin asked, like Miyoung? “So that’s it? There’s really no way for a gumiho to become mortal?”
“Oh, there is,” Sinhye said with a grim smile. “Just because I was in that prison didn’t mean that I couldn’t hear the spirits in the Between. And they watched the world of the living. They told me things. Like how some gumiho found they could become human if they refused to feed for one hundred days, three moons. And then at the end they severed their ties with their bead. A painful process, from what I’ve heard; some of them didn’t survive it. Severing yourself from your yeowu guseul is like trying to rip out a part of your own soul. But the ones who lived could be free from the curse of the gumiho. Could be human.”
Somin couldn’t help but think of Miyoung. She hadn’t fed for one hundred days, and they’d all been wondering how she survived. Was it possible for her to become fully human if she just severed her bond with her bead?
“You’re thinking of your friend, aren’t you?” Sinhye said. “Such an interesting creature. Not quite human, not quite gumiho. She’s sitting in a fragile limbo. Still attached to her lost bead. She’ll be a fun toy after I’m done playing with you.”
“I know that you’ve suffered,” Somin said, carefully choosing her words. “You didn’t deserve it. Maybe we can help you find