After I had left Young Min at the marketplace, I had set off to find the shaman named Han Yuri. In the twisting, narrow streets of the poorer side of town, I finally managed to catch a whiff of something other than the stench of rotten food and refuse that permeated the air. It was the slight tang of old parchment and dried herbs. The hovel itself, when I finally traced the scent to its source, had an aroma similar to the kind of sandy, loose dirt that always washes away in a storm.

The shaman was not there.

I slipped inside and sniffed around. There was an old black dolsot pot that reeked of spells, stacks of books on the floor against one wall, and a wooden table that smelled of rot, have-buried under bundles of herbs gathered from outside the village.

Shuffling footsteps sounded outside. I turned just as the door creaked open, a shaft of sunlight temporarily blinding me as the shaman stepped inside.

She was silent for a moment, taking in the sight of me standing amongst her books and spell ingredients.

"You came to visit," the woman finally said. "Welcome to my home."

"Han Yuri," I said. "You're the one who cursed me?"

"Oh no," she said. "The only one cursed is the one who is trapped in the memories of the past. Unless, of course, that is you?"

I snarled. "You know nothing of my past."

"Oh, I think I know enough," she said. "After all, it's part of who you are."

"Get rid of the curse," I snapped.

"It's just a spell."

"It isn't to me!" I growled. "And if you knew as much as you claimed, you would know that."

"Why? Because it reminds you of just how human you are? How human you could be?"

"That's enough!" I had told the mountain shaman I wouldn't kill this woman, but I was coming dangerously close to breaking that promise.

"You think you're the only one? That this sort of thing hasn't happened before?"

"Of course not," I snapped. "Gumiho lore existed long before I became what I am. I know what others have chosen to do. But I will not abandon my mountain. I cannot. And I don't need you shoving that young noble in my face to taunt me."

"It was not meant as an insult, but an opportunity." The shaman stepped closer. "It is curious you were not so easily persuaded."

"Like I said, you know nothing about me." I took a step back and bared my teeth.

"Yet you followed him down from the mountain," the shaman said. "You're weaker here, and you know it. Why did you do it?"

"A promise made in an act of desperation, no more," I snarled.

The old woman actually had the gall to smirk. "I think you like him."

"It wasn't a promise to him," I shot back. "It was to a woman."

The shaman's smile dropped into a frown. "Ah. A complication," she said.

I tilted my head curiously. "A complication?"

"Her presence must have weakened the spell," the woman muttered.

Good, I thought. I would have to remember that bit of information.

"Why?" I asked.

The shaman looked up at me. "You truly are not jealous?"

"Jealous? I have no reason to be."

"She is diverting his attention from you."

"I am glad to hear it."

"Ack!" the shaman turned away. "I don't understand you. A gumiho should want to become human."

"Well," I began, crossing my arms and leaning a hip against the wall, "I do take a certain amount of pleasure in foiling the plans of others. Especially when I know those plans involve getting rid of me."

"You did not know that she would hinder the spell's performance." The shaman turned back to face me as this realization came to her. "It could not have been mere coincidence that you made a pact with her."

I stepped away from the wall. "As I said, it was a hasty decision at a time when I had little other choice but to agree to her demands. Your friend in the mountain had set up a trap for me."

"It is a wonder your gumiho charm could not convince her to do your bidding freely," the shaman mused.

"She already knew what I was. My charms would not have been effective." I idly trailed a finger across the top of a stack of books.

The shaman's eyes narrowed. "How could she have known what you were? And known to bargain with you in exchange for her help?"

"We had met once before," I snapped, annoyed by the interrogation. "She realized what I was then, and I, in my foolishness, told her more than I should have. I'll admit, for one who comes from such a low place in society, she is well-educated."

Yet it seemed, for whatever strange reason, that the shaman had even more questions about my agreement with Kim Nara. Before she could open her mouth again, however, I directed the topic of conversation back to the more pressing matter at hand.

"Now, are you going to lift this curse, or not?"

"I cannot," the shaman replied, and I snarled my displeasure. "It has become tangled," she continued as an explanation. "When one creates a spell, it is like tying a knot. But as time goes on, and more people and things interact with the spell, the more knotted it becomes. It would be impossible to undo by this time."

"I am not becoming human," I snapped.

"Then you must cut through the knot."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

The shaman shook her head at my ignorance. "The other shaman surely told you already. You must recreate the spell—but change it."

~*~

I left the shaman's hut just as tangled up in Young Min's curse as I had been before going in. The smell of sizzling meat wafted from food stalls as I stalked back through the marketplace, but I didn't have much of an appetite. My most pressing concern at the moment was that the curse would be completed before I had time to break it. I needed more time, and I only knew of one way to get that—with the convenient "complication" that the shaman woman had mentioned.

The young nobleman's scent was easier to find than the girl's, however, as it was not as masked by dirt and mud. It was only luck that I found Kim Nara with him—if only for a short amount of time. I arrived just in time to hear the end of an argument, and then Nara was pulled through the doors of one of the large estates in the neighborhood. They shut behind her with a solemn finality.

"That's it?" I asked. Park Young Min looked up at me, startled to see that I had been watching.

"What?" he asked.

"You're just going to give up? I saw how you reacted when you found out."

"She's a thief. It's the law." His response did not give me hope, but I had to change his mind.

"Listen to yourself. 'She's a thief.' So because she messed up once, that suddenly negates everything else? Do you know one of the first things she said when I met her? I was trying to persuade her not to help you—that nobles never pay attention to commoners like her, but she said 'just because he's rich doesn't mean he's a bad person.'"

"But a thief is by definition a bad person." Young Min frowned.

"No," I said, "Not always. Sometimes it's just a desperate person who made a mistake, and who has the potential to learn from their mistake and do better in the future."

Young Min crossed his arms. "What's going on?"

I gave him an innocent look. "I don't know what you mean."

"Oh, I think you do." He took a step closer. "Why do you want so badly for me to help her?"

I huffed in annoyance. "You're fond of her. You try not to show it, because she's from a different social class and it would be improper. But I can tell."

Young Min gave me a stony look, one that suggested I stop talking. "Whether I am or not is of no concern to you."

"It is, actually," I countered. "Because I just found out she's the only thing standing between us and this curse being completed. If it weren't for Kim Nara, you and I would both be miserable right now."

Young Min looked confused. "So, if I find a way to lift her sentence as a slave, it will no longer pain me to walk?"

"Well...no. It will only ensure that you don't fall in love with me."

Young Min recoiled, and I rolled my eyes. I was in all likelihood the prettiest woman he had seen. If not for the fact that he knew I wasn't human, he would have fallen for me instantly.

"So how will that help anything, though?" Young Min asked. "Besides, well..."

"It will allow me to focus on lifting the rest of the curse, without distractions," I answered. "It will give me more time."

"All right," Young Min agreed. "I'll...figure something out."

"And maybe kiss her, just for good measure."

"What?"

I turned away. "Remember, no distractions!"

My mood was only mildly improved by having given the proper young noble such a shock. The glee quickly vanished, however, as I turned my attention to the task at hand. Now that I was no longer on my mountain, I would have to be more careful in how I went about breaking the curse. The shaman was right—my charms were weaker here, and I could not bully people into order so easily.

So what could I do? I made my way down a wide market street, lost in thought. I was so focused on my plans, in fact, that I almost missed the large figures stepping into an inn for drinks.

The corners of my mouth turned down in disapproval. So much for not having any other distractions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey everyone!  Here's a chapter to celebrate me being done with my internship!  I just presented today, and somehow managed to finish this chapter even though I'm supposed to be packing for my flight tomorrow...sorry if it's not too great, I didn't have much time for proofreading.  :(  But I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!  And since it's a first draft, well...we'll see if I ever get around to editing!