Nine Tails

06

"What did you consume-" 

Soojin shot a knowing glance around the room before she silently assessed the situation to Chaeri. There were other people in the room—our managers and the two hair stylists. Chaeri understood and dropped the topic. 

"You should get changed, Jiya," Chaeri said but neither Soojin nor I failed to catch the hidden ''ll -talk-about-this-later'. 

"Yeah, you should. The sooner the better, actually, because I caught a whiff of conceit from the photographer. I think it will do you some good, considering the fact that you haven't had a proper feed for a while now."

"I doubt I'd be able to taste anything," I sighed, looking at my hands. "But thanks for the heads-up, Jin." 

"Chae, how much time did it take for you to find your prey?" Soojin suddenly asked. 

Caught off-guard, Chaeri muttered: "A fortnight, I suppose?"

"And how long did it take you to hunt him down?"

"Three days," she said with quiet pride. 

"See?" Soojin turned to me, as if she were making a point. "It's sniffing out the prey that takes up most of the time. The only thing I'm particularly worried about is that you will take as long as you please in the hunting department. Like I said-"

"I like to play with my food, yes, I know; I have it jotted down in memory," I said, rolling my eyes. 

"But it is true, Jiya," Chaeri said, soothingly. "Remember that time with Lisa?"

"Ah yes, and that other time with Wooyoung?" 

"Oh, did you forget that one encounter with Jung-"

"That's enough, thank you. I got it, I need to finish up as soon as I can because then the only thing that's between me and the status of a perfect Gumiho is the ninth tail, right?" 

Soojin shook her head. "That's not the only thing. You do remember which year it is, right?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Are you subtly saying that I might take that long to catch a bloody prey?" 

Not knowing what to do, Soojin gave me the jazz hands, smiling foolishly.

Chaeri checked her watch. "Look at all the time we're wasting, chit-chatting! Off you go into the changing room, Jiya. And I better see you here in less than five minutes."

I knew better than to test the patience of the otherwise sweet mother of my godson, so I followed her exact instructions.

*

As I adjusted the straps of my bikini, I wondered why Soojin could smell my preferred taste better than I could. In fact, it should be the other way around, seeing that I have a stronger affiliation with it than her.

I dismissed it as a foul, almost rancid odour barged its way into my nostrils. 

I turned to Soojin. "Do you smell that?" 

Soojin looked confused. "Smell what?"

"Something smells like foul eggs. Who hasn't had a bloody bath here?" I said, wrinkling my nose. 

Soojin could only shrug in response, since she had absolutely no clue what I was on about.

I searched around me in hopes of finding at least one ape-relative to catch on to the disgusting scent, but it yielded no result. 

Either someone had terrible body odour, or they had come into close contact with a Dragon Empress. Filthy, fishy creatures they were.

I looked around me for potential victims but couldn't detect the origin of the smell. Foolish me, I forgot that it was one of its many unfortunate side-effects. Perhaps one of the crew members had one of those creatures as a guardian spirit; possibly to ward off pesky predators - such as myself.