서나혜 is different... not just different but very different... a 구미호 surreptitiously living in a very secretive, closed, close-knit subculture that forbids almost all relationships with humans.
She's very intelligent, strikingly beautiful and deliber...
"엄마! 다녀왔습니다. (Ma! I'm home.)" she announced as she entered through the back door of their home.
Immediately she removed her shoes and set them aside on the tray just inside the door. Outdoor footwear was never worn inside the house. Also habitually set aside at their home's threshold was the use of English; Ma insisted upon keeping outside their home those vestiges of the outside human world that could be kept out.
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"Did you work hard?" Ma inquired as always when her daughter returned home and peeked around into the kitchen from the doorway.
Ma was standing at the kitchen counter preparing food for dinner. She'd been hoping her mother was preparing meat dishes but what she saw was mostly green. Seconds later Ma moved the greens aside, revealing the skinned carcass of a small animal waiting to be chopped-up.
Surprised but pleased, she immediately asked, "Ma! Did you go hunting?"
"No... the animal was making itself at home inside the barn... so I took care of it." Ma detailed succinctly.
"What is it?" she questioned, now curious to know what was for dinner.
"A surprise." Ma answered.
"Is it something I don't like?" she questioned dubiously.
"It's not a bird." Ma reassured her, well aware that her daughter disliked food that naturally came with feathers; chicken in particular.
"Good! Surprise me!" she happily responded because Ma just confirmed nothing fowl was on the menu.
"Put that away!" Ma instructed when she finally noticed her daughter holding the butterfly net; it had been outdoors and Ma didn't want it in the kitchen.
"He returned it just like I said he would." she bragged smugly and triumphantly waved the net again; displaying proof she'd been right all along concerning her case study subject.
Ma wasn't the least bit interested, and with unmistakable displeasure in her voice, she questioned, "What have I said before about interfering with the humans here? Haven't you learned anything?"
"I told you he'd return it!" she repeated, then added, "And he repaired it too."
"You're not listening to me." Ma admonished with unwavering firmness.
"I heard you, Ma." she acknowledged with a slight bow, memories of that last incident still fresh her in mind ...
Despite repeated protestations she wasn't the least bit interested in going anywhere with him after class, that arrogant human followed her out of the building, catcalling after her to stop. She'd ignored him like he didn't exist but then the incensed idiot roughly grabbed her wrist. Reacting in self-defense she brutally struck back, leaving him moaning on the ground with several broken fingers.
"Then do what I've asked." Ma ordered sternly and then grumbled, "I've no wish for us to have to flee again."
She sighed, feeling let down because of Ma's lack of enthusiasm and then stepped back through the kitchen doorway to hang the butterfly net on one of the coat hooks near the back door entrance. After removing her sweater she hung it on the hook on the right side of the net.
