Requested by Mila.

You had never wanted to be human.

You had seen what it did to gumihos. Your best friend had chosen it---love, curiosity, hope---and paid for it with a miserable, fragile life. You learned from her mistake. Humans were weak, fleeting, greedy. Useful, yes. But nothing more.

That was why you took their wishes so easily.

Money exchanged hands. Power answered. No attachments.

You were cocky, short-tempered, and careless with your magic. You took what you wanted, bent rules when they bored you, and treated humans like temporary clients who would be gone before they mattered. The heavens tolerated you. Barely.

Then Kang Si-yeol walked into your life.

He didn’t look desperate like the others. He didn’t beg. He sat across from you, tall, composed, fame clinging to him like a second skin, and said he didn’t need anything. You almost kicked him out.

“I’m fine,” He said. “But my friend isn’t.”

That caught your attention.

Woo-seok’s dream was simple---play soccer, really play it, not just from the sidelines of someone else’s success. Si-yeol spoke of him with an earnestness that annoyed you. Humans were selfish. This one wasn’t.

You agreed to grant the wish. On your terms.

You decided the method. You always did.

When the magic settled, the world tilted. Si-yeol woke up in Woo-seok’s life. Woo-seok woke up in Si-yeol’s. Talent and opportunity swapped like clothes. You laughed when you saw the chaos unfold.

Then the heavens answered.

Your power vanished in an instant---sharp, violent, absolute. Your fox tail disappeared. Your senses dulled. Hunger hit you like pain. Cold sank into your bones.

You became human.

Si-yeol found you shaking, furious, terrified in ways you had never allowed yourself to be. He didn’t mock you. He didn’t gloat.

“You don’t know how to do this,” He said quietly.

You hated that he was right.

You worked together because you had no choice. He wanted his life back. You wanted your power. You shared cramped spaces, late nights, whispered arguments, and fragile plans. He taught you how to eat properly, how to cross streets without magic, how to exist without being feared or worshipped.

You learned how it felt to be tired for no reason. To bleed. To care.

Humans noticed you now. They smiled. They ignored you. They hurt you without meaning to. You understood, slowly, painfully, why your friend had suffered---and why she had still chosen it.

Si-yeol watched you change.

He saw you soften without realizing it. He saw the way you listened when people spoke, the way anger no longer came so easily. He saw the loneliness you hid behind sharp words.

“You’re not as cruel as you pretend,” He said once.

You scoffed. “You don’t know me.”

“I’m learning,” He replied.

Somewhere between helping Woo-seok chase his dream and fighting fate itself, you started caring whether Si-yeol smiled. Whether he slept. Whether he believed in you.

When the chance finally came---when the heavens demanded a price---you understood the lesson they wanted to teach.

Power meant nothing without responsibility.

You chose correctly this time.

Magic returned to you in a quieter way. Wiser. Earned.

Si-yeol’s life went back to him. Woo-seok kept his chance. The balance restored.

But something else remained.

You stood between worlds now, fox and woman, knowing exactly what being human meant. Si-yeol looked at you like you were both miracle and home.

“You don’t have to choose,” He told you.

For the first time, you believed him.

And so you found yourself at a crossroads. Between two paths---torn between returning to what you had been, reclaiming your power and your old life… or remaining human, fragile and finite.

Or maybe it wasn’t about either of those things at all.

Maybe you simply wanted to stay.

With him.

"Just know I'll help you," He added, watching you and the puzzled expression you wore. "If you'll stay."

And he smiled. Jeez, why did you care so much about it, though?