Living with the Dangerous Beast-Chapter 83: Not Just a Little

Her fear-stricken face made her look even more pitiful.

“Why is that guy following you, master?”

“I told you, Don’t call me master. Call me Sohwa.”

“Sohwa.”

Though he looked older than his age, Dohwi was still a young tiger.

“Why is he following you? That deer.”

Despite having lived a thousand years, Dohwi had never felt any desire toward anyone.

He couldn’t understand why a male would pursue a female.

It wasn’t as if the deer wanted to eat her.

Why would an herbivore chase after a fox, of all creatures?

And with such desperate longing, no less.

“You mean him? That’s Manrok, a young stag, and, well, he says he likes me.”

“....”

‘What? She already knows his name?’

That fact irritated Dohwi more than it should have.

He scowled without realizing it, quickly tilting his head to feign confusion.

“So that buck wants to have sex with you?”

“Goodness me! Dowhi, where did you learn such words?”

Sohwa looked like she might faint but didn’t bother correcting him.

“Myojin told me he’s actually quite a reliable guy... But what can we do? He’s a deer, and I’m a fox.”

Sohwa snorted as if it were the most ridiculous thing in the world.

“And why is that a problem?”

“What do you mean, Dohwi? Even though we’re half-beasts, there are still rules we must follow. No matter what happens, foxes should be with foxes, and deer with deer.”

Sohwa raised her chin as if she were some wise elder and lectured Dohwi.

In short, different species couldn’t be together.

“But... why?”

“If the species are different, you can’t have children nor be a family. So how can you love each other?”

Sohwa’s last words hit Dohwi like a weight on his chest.

‘If you can’t be family, you can’t love? Someone you can love, and someone you can’t. Can who you love really be decided like that? It doesn’t feel like ‘love’ is something anyone should have the power to decide....’

Of course, Dohwi had never dreamed of having any kind of relationship with a different species.

At first, for him, everything besides himself had always been nothing more than a prey.

As the ruler of Mount Taeryong, his instincts hadn’t been driven by the need for offspring, which was probably why he had never felt the urge to mate, nor did he get into heat.

Once, a tigress had caught his scent and came to the mountain, but he had been so irritated by the invasion of his territory that he chased her off with a bite.

Let alone loving a deer or a goat?

To Dohwi, they were just delicious prey that made his mouth water, but never once had he seen them as potential mates.

It wasn’t even physically possible.

But that buck—he actually had feelings for the fox?

“Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?”

Sohwa, looking confused, touched her face.

Her fair skin, eyes like blackberries, her small nose and red lips—everything about her caught his eye, though just a little.

No... not just a little.

Dohwi thought back to the moment when her face had shone like the sun.

「Are you a wildcat? Why do you have so many black stripes? Can you see me?」

Back then, with the sun behind her, laughing as she held him in her arms, she had tossed her head back in pure joy.

Dohwi absurdly found her face more dazzling than the sunlight streaming over her shoulder—the face of the fox who had taken him in as a helpless newborn and raised him like a cherished treasure.

“Nothing... It’s nothing....”

As Sohwa pulled out her hand mirror to check her face, she suddenly remembered something and looked up.

“Dohwi, I might come home late tonight. Go to sleep first. I’m going fishing for sweetfish.”

“Fishing for sweetfish?”

‘You’re definitely not cut out for hunting, that’s for sure.’

Oblivious to Dohwi’s inner thoughts, Sohwa confidently grabbed a net.

“Look at this! Hoyoung gave it to me. With this, I’ll be able to catch plenty of sweetfish.”

Hoyoung, a raccoon, might grumble a lot, but he frequented this house and took care of her, clearly showing he had feelings for Sohwa.

That net was surely meant for catching an innocent, beautiful fox, not a sweetfish.

He was probably already at the river, waiting impatiently for her to arrive.

“I’ll come with you.”

“You’re still too young. The water where the sweetfish swim is cold; it’ll make your hands freeze.”

“I’ll be fine.”

‘You should worry about yourself, not me. You’re the one who’ll be bedridden for days again.’

Dohwi suppressed a smirk and quietly followed Sohwa as she headed off.

* * *

Sohwa panted as she climbed the mountain.

He had noticed it when they went grape-picking—she was such a strange fox.