Haetae.
In Korean folklore, the haetae is a scaled goat-like creature that was believed to know right from wrong, and helped pass judgement on guilty and innocent parties.
Choi Gayoung is the last known Haetae to exist in the world. Lee Yeon is...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The night passed by without a hitch, which Gayoung took as a sign that everything was fine with Ji-ah and her parents. It was actually quite a load off her shoulders to know that Yeon was no longer bound to Ji-ah due to him finally fulfilling his promise to her all those months ago. And yet...
Gayoung stared down at her living room table as her mind was filled with thoughts about her almost-fox husband, and now they were... back together? Living together? There were too many uncertainties surrounding them and their relationship, and now that she was having a moment to breathe, the insecure, scared to be hurt again and made a fool of, unsure still if she could trust Yeon the way she did before, part of her was being very loud in comparison to before.
She tapped her foot against the floor anxiously as she thought everything over. Hearing the sound of footsteps coming over to her, she quickly looked back to see Yeon, who seemed to have just woken up. He lazily smiled at her before walking over to her.
"Good morning, babe." He said, stopping by the chair she was sitting on. He knelt down and kissed her cheek before drinking her in and cocked his head at her. "Why are you dressed up so prettily today? Is there something important you have to go do?"
"I don't know how to feel about our relationship." Gayoung blurted out, feeling like a huge weight was lifted off her chart.
Yeon quickly stood up and looked at her with wide eyes. She quickly got rid of any of his sleepiness with that one sentence. He felt a lump appear in his throat, and panic overwhelm him as his mind instantly went to the worst-case scenario.
"Are you... do you want to break up?" He asked her, tears building up in his eyes and feeling his knees get weak.
"What?" Gayoung asked, looking at him in confusion. She then let out a sigh before standing up and facing him. "Yeon, we haven't done any of this properly. We've just been going through the motions without even talking about any of it, agreeing to it for now, and never going back to whatever we were supposed to discuss. We don't even know how to describe our relationship to others."
"Everyone can tell we're together without us even saying it." Yeon insisted, slightly more calm now that he heard her say that she didn't want to break up. "What title or label can even fit us? We've made all this work without talking about it, so why do we need to now?"
"Because it matters. Especially because it's us. You might be fine with going with the flow, but I'm not. At least not right now while we have a second to breathe and actually talk about this." She insisted, taking a step closer to him.