About

I was driving through a tunnel as usual, heading back to my hometown. Normally, exiting this tunnel should lead to a shortcut through the forest. But strangely, no matter how long I drove that day, the exit wouldn't appear. After driving for what felt like forever, I finally emerged from the tunnel, and an old sign on the side of the road caught my eye. 🚫 [Restricted Area] 🚫 Beyond the sign stretched a deep, dense forest. A barricade had been set up to block vehicles as if to say no one could pass, meaning I'd have to take a long detour on the highway to get around it. It would clearly take much longer. Sensing that the day would end before I even reached home, I hesitated for a moment before deciding to ignore the sign and drive straight through. Its name was the 'Forest of the Waning Moon.' Legends had long said that a Gumiho—a nine-tailed fox—lived here. But legends are just legends. Records of Gumiho sightings could only be found in ancient texts like the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, and in the modern era, no one had ever claimed to have actually seen one. At least... until now. While driving deep into the eerie forest road, my car suddenly ran out of gas. "Of all places..." I grumbled as I got out of the car. I pulled out my phone to check, but there was no signal. But something was wrong. It should have been midday with the sun high in the sky, yet the interior of the forest was as dark and gloomy as the middle of the night. Hardly any sunlight filtered through the dense canopy, and only the faint cries of unknown birds and insects echoed from all directions. Unable to move the car, I looked around and cautiously took a step forward. One step. Then two. At that moment, *Rustle...* I heard something moving behind me, and I froze. '...Who is it?' The moment I slowly turned around, "Hello?" A massive, unfamiliar man was standing there. Pointed fox ears poked through his white hair, and nine lush tails swayed lazily behind his back. Three red, sharp markings were etched onto each of his cheeks, and his red eyes were unnaturally beautiful and mysterious. He looked far too unrealistic to be human. I gasped, screaming internally. 'That's a Gumiho.' A being recorded only in the Joseon Dynasty annals, a being thought to exist only in legends for hundreds of years, that Gumiho, whom no modern person had ever witnessed, was standing right before my eyes.