"Tell me which dumbass did it. I will bite that brainless bastard who threw you here to death."
Nam Haejin blinked rapidly, shivering in his arms as her brain worked overtime.
Did he just say bite?
"You... You're going to bite someone to death?" she asked, her voice shaking—not from cold, but genuine concern for her life choices. Not that she had any right now.
Sol's crimson eyes narrowed. "If they hurt you, they die."
"Oh... kay?"
Wow. That escalated really fast.
"You're mine," he said simply. "No one touches what's mine."
Holy toxic red flag!
She'd heard lines like that in webtoons and spicy manhwa, but they were never this real. Or terrifyingly convincing.
She knew she shouldn't but her damn foolish heart was swoon over. Is she gradually becoming one of those female simps that she would often choke through the depths of her head while reading their crappy choice of men?!
Oh great gods, help her poor smitten heart!
The man held her carefully out of the water while never taking his sight away from her.
This couldn've been so romantic if not for deadly fangs showing and the slithery fork tongue hissing right in front of her face as if trying to make her recall this person was a real beast and not just a 'normal' hotty.
Before she could properly calm her hormones, tell him to back off and explain what the hell is going on, another noise cracked through the forest.
Snap!
A twig broke. Then another and so on...
Following the faint sound, two figures emerged from behind a row of thick, mossy trees. There, she saw Cain with a serious and concern expression.
Behind him was another tall guy with deep, inky hair, panting, limping, and seemingly bruised all over, like he'd rolled down a mountain and then wrestled a bear halfway back.
Haejin tensed.
Another beast? Who... is that?
This new guy looked like a mess—shirt torn, one eye swollen shut, and mud streaked across his jawline—but despite the battle damage, there was no mistaking the sleek, black tail dragging behind him.
A cat?
No, it wasn't just any cat— but a freaking huge cat. Black and panther-like!
His ears twitched atop his head as he locked eyes with her and instantly lit up like a kicked puppy seeing his owner.
"Wife…!"
"Wifeeyyyy!"
Her whole body froze. She could feel her eardrums bleeding.
What now?!
"Are you alright?" Cain asked with a pained gaze and draped her with a dry, warm coat. The gesture struck her and she felt very thankful for his attentiveness but her response was ultimately drowned by someone else's burst of tearducts and nonstop shouting.
"Thank—"
"Wifeeyyy! I—I'm so sorry! I wasn't thinking straight. I shouldn't have thrown you out like that. I'm really really sorry! Boohoo!"
The big black cat almost take a leap and hug her but immediately back down when he saw her drenched form like he had seen something that made him particularly revolted.
Gulp.
The black panther flinched and stopped abruptly. Halting his step within a safe distance, the man cried out dramatically, scrambling forward in pretense but obviously dared not to approach near her drenched body.
"My wife! I-I didn't mean it! I was trying to help you calm down! Please forgive me!" the man sobbed.
What did he say?!
His wife?
Oh please! Again with that wife!
Before Haejin could react, Sol snarled, standing up with her still half-wrapped in his arms. His tail lashed the air and fierce lunged at his throat which Hyun fortunately evaded on time.
"You dare show your face?" he hissed. "You're still breathing after what you did?!"
"W-Wait! Ah, shit! Sol, don't kill me! I said I was sorry! I-I just panicked earlier!" the big black cat whimpered, crouching with both arms raised as if he'd been through this before. "She... she was steaming—literally steaming! Cain made her so hot to the point where I saw her producing smoke wisps! I-I was trying to help. Err... I thought maybe a cold bath would help!"
Hearing his words, Haejin realized something with dawning horror. This battered black cat was the one who threw her and what's more!
"You threw me into a lake to cool off?!" she screeched, voice cracking. "Are you crazy?! I almost drowned!"
Hyun winced and tried to reason out.
"It was a shallow part! I thought—"
"Then you thought wrong! You piece of jerk! Do you want me dead?" she roared tearfully with a hint of loathing.
Stunned, the big cat shifted and automatically dropped to his knees with an extremely pallid and horrified expression.
"W-Wife! I would never! Why would I want you dead?" He blurted out while shaking. "It's all my fault! Please, punish me however you want. Just don't say it like you hate me!"
Sol stared toward him like a predator ready to strike, but Haejin flung out a hand to block him when she saw how much Hyun was trembling as if in pain.
"Stop! Please! Just—" she took a deep breath and let out a long sigh.: "Everyone back up and give me some peace for a minute!"
The forest went quiet. Even the wind seemed to pause. The girl furrowed her brows and wiped the water droplets from her face, while her shoulders tremble faintly.
"This is too much. I don't know any of you. I don't know what this place is. All I know is I went to sleep in my tiny rented room in Seoul, and now I'm in a cave-hut combo surrounded by gorgeous psychos with animal ears and tails calling me wife!"
The panther-man blinked.
"Wife, you… don't you remember?"
Nam Haejin felt her head and wince. Just what kind of dream is this? Not this plot device!
Haejin groaned. She was happy before to have seen beautiful people but this is just becoming so complicated. She never knew that her imagination was this wide and great. Perhaps, she could try writing novels next time and earn some money instead of making her creative juice rot in her weird dreams.
"Remember what? You think we're characters filming a drama and I have amnesia now?"
"Film? Drama? Amnesia?"
The two looked visibly confused while Sol's expression turned unreadable.
"Yes, because you see I'm not your wife or anyone's wife. My name is Nam Haejin," she said firmly, trying to take control. "Twenty years old. College student. Works part-time cleaning houses and obsessing over fictional men— ahem! Wait, scratch that one."
She cleared her throat and hid the blush creeping in her face when she saw their expression.
"What I mean is all of these—" she gestured wildly to the jungle-like setting and the three of them before continuing. "— none of this is real. It can't be real, okay?"
The three men exchanged a look and then the panther spoke, visibly perturbed and nervous, "Wifey, what are you saying? You're scaring the shit out of me with your words. This is all real! What do mean none of this is real? The three of us are your mates!"
In his mind, although she can always ditch the others, she can't forget about him!
Hyun turned to the others, trembling.
"Hey, snake-eyes, dog-ears! Don't just stand there and say something! Did... did she really lost her memory?!"
Cain snarled and rolled his eyes.
"And who's fault is it, you dumbass?" He clearly wanted to say more but in the end his eyes only lingered at her shivering form and Sol's unusual silence.
A small, subtle smile tugged the corner of his lips that certainly didn't pass Cain's notice.
Memory loss... doesn't sound so bad. But those fictional men... did she met someone from another tribe?
The smile on his face quickly turned to something dark and ominous. Nonetheless, no one said a word, while Hyun was the only one looking all sweaty and panicking.
"Ah! I'm dead... I'm so fucking dead with Geum!"
Meanwhile, looking equally perturbed, Haejin's stomach dropped.
No! No, no, no!
What do you mean real? She may have fantasize about becoming a heroine on a fictional novel but this was too sudden and too much to take.
Come to think of it, why is she not waking up? Is this really that thing they call transmigration?
Insane.
This definitely just way too insane for her to even believe!
And more than that, she wasn't ready for this!
Not the gorgeous danger black noodle. Not the apologetic panther with sad purple-cat eyes. Or the sighing white puppy on the sideline!
And certainly not whatever was waiting next.
She needed a break. A bed. Yes, a comfortable bed and a hot chocolate drink to ease her soul!
Should she go meet a doctor and schedule a therapy session? Wait that's... maybe not, that's too expensive for her right now.
But most importantly—
"I. Need. To wake. The hell. Up."
Haejin pushed the stunned snake off her. She pulled away from Sol and walked in a distance. Away.
But as soon as her cold feet touched the bank, her rotten luck activated like it was part of her written fate to be a klutz.
Right then and there, she saw herself falling sideways in a slow motion stupidly slipping like her precious sanity.
"Wife!!!"
"Wifeyy!"
Oh crap.