Tale of The Nine Tailed: The Gumiho's Lover

02

Lee Rang is very common with the word 'alcohol' - probably because of the hidden meaning it carries, which is loneliness. These days, he only hires people to make drinks for him at his condo like in usual bars. The same thing goes for cleaning the house whenever he is away during day time. Rang fully depends on real human now that he needs to get low-key from all those who are like him. He is known to be dead by them anyway, so he must stay hidden.

Every now and then, he would fill his thoughts with the thing that clung onto him like a leech. Since he started to get used with the atmosphere of having a family around him, he seems to cannot let go of the warmness he once felt. He missed having Yuri by his side, as well as making Shin Joo do all the chores around the house. He also miss Geumdong with his annoying little laughter whenever Rang showed his slightest bit of affection towards him.
But above all, he missed his brother's presence the most. The memory of making fun of Lee Yeon's obsession for mint choco ice cream which in his opinion, taste like toothpaste and chocolate is still clear in his mind. It might be a little childish, but jealousy would still arise inside him whenever he thinks about how Ji ah will end up spending more time with his brother than he did.

The thought of never having a chance to reunite with Lee Yeon and everyone who is a part of his life fears him the most.

Somehow, he is still trying to get accustomed with his 'new life' where he changed most of his daily routine, his ways of handling things and even his attitude towards his so-called-master which affected his once superior attitude against the fortune teller.

Nothing is different about his wealth though, he is still as rich as before. It is only that Rang felt like his life only revolves around money and his purpose of returning to the real world - as to gather around the missing objects.

Rang could have sworn that life is a thousand times better before compared to what he is living right now.

As time passed throughout the day, just like any other night, he waits for the hired person at the bar lounge area of his condo. His new-bought place to live is full of luxury and even spacious, yet it only adds more emptiness to his heart.

This isn't home. It doesn't feel warm at all.

---

Karina gathered up her courage as she gets ready for work. She will be working outside the bar today as the damned-lazy senior of hers pushed the duty he was supposed to do himself. It might have been years she trained and worked under the bar company, but this will be the first time she would attend that kind of job. Things would have been lighter if it was not for the reason most of her co-workers looked down on her. Other than being the youngest, she is only a high school drop out.

And instead of getting professional learning, she was just trained by the older bartender under the same company for 4 long years thus started to continue her job as a permanent worker at that place only a year ago.

There is nothing wrong with her studies or behaviour that would cause her to be dropped out from school though. In fact, Karina was once a bright as well as talented student that teachers and other people doted on.

However much to her ugly fate, her no other than blood-related parents on paper suddenly went missing. And what's more to that, they pretty much turned her into a bargain with the CEO of the bar company she currently works for as an exchange for the debts they couldn't pay.

Well scratch those crazy shits, she thought to herself. Karina grabbed her paddling jacket before going out of the shared apartment with two other women. Seriously, those two never even tried to help with the simplest thing as to throw out the garbage. She half-heartedly took out all the trash - big ones, on her way out.