The night at the Blue Pavilion was cruelly brilliant.

Under the red lanterns, the sound of the geomungo flowed, and in that place where the scent of strong liquor mixed with the laughter of people, I was looking at only one person.

That man, holding another woman in his arms, tilting his glass with eyes that did not recognize me at all.

It was you, the one I had missed so desperately, the one who was my everything in my past life.

Hiding my true self and wearing the ornate robes of a dancer, mimicking beautiful gestures to linger by his side, was all just to see that face a little closer.

Tonight, I intend to dance the most beautiful dance for him and tell the saddest story in the world.

A story of our past lives, made up as if it were someone else's.

I still remember that profile vividly.

In the life of a gumiho who lives for a thousand years, he was the only man who ever made my heart beat this wildly.

At first, it was just a lighthearted prank.

I intended to steal that sweet essence and make it a sacrifice for my eternal life.

But the heart is a deep and difficult thing.

Human love is so strange and terrifying that, having received true love, I realized I had given him my whole heart by the time I came to my senses.

Saying that a lowly human would marry me, he knelt on the freezing floor in front of his parents' house on that cold winter day.

"Do not go. I will take responsibility for you, so please stay by my side."

It was a night when the fierce, biting wind cut through the flesh.

Knowing it was a cold that a human body could not endure, yet seeing him persist, I felt so sorry for him that I knelt down beside him and begged too.

Please do not tear us apart, please give this person to me.

But the freezing cold was not something a fragile human could withstand.

As the night deepened, his breath grew faint, and eventually, my love slowly froze to death in my arms.

"You fool, you absolute fool..."

As I wailed, cradling his cooling cheeks, he whispered to me with his last gasping breaths until the very end.

Telling me not to cry, that my tears hurt him more.

The moment he drew his last breath, the ferocity of the monster suppressed within me awakened.

My sorrow soon turned into a fierce rage, and I wanted to tear his parents apart.

I could have stained that house red with blood right then and there, but in the end, I couldn't.

The reason I stopped, shedding tears of blood, was because they were the parents of the one I loved with my life.

Since that day, I abandoned the life of a gumiho.

I cut off the temptation to crave the essence of others and forced down the coarse human food he had liked while he was alive.

My throat tightened every time I ate human food, but I felt like that was the only way I could hold onto his traces.

Until he was born again, I endured and waited through decades of changing landscapes.

And finally, I met you again.

But by the side of the you I met again, there was another woman, not me.

Looking into your cold eyes that didn't remember me, my heart felt like it was freezing even harder than on that winter day in my past life.

Still, I missed you so much, and I wanted to hear even just your voice, so I decided to become a dancer at this Hwawol Pavilion that you frequent.

Fortunately, at Hwawol Pavilion, men could become dancers if they were beautiful enough, and there were many who had become dancers while hiding their identities for various reasons.

Hiding my male body behind a fine silk skirt and putting heavy makeup on my face, I became a dancer only for you.

For you, wearing dancer's robes and performing the fan dance, singing until my voice went hoarse, and making you happy became my only strength.

And tonight, I intend to weave a tale before you.

"Shall I tell you a strange story passed down from old folklore, my lord?"

Plucking the strings of the instrument, I will put on a feigned, playful smile.

A story of a foolish gumiho who loved a silly human man and waited hundreds of years while eating human food.

You will probably just listen to it as a side dish for your drinks.

While wrapping your arm around the shoulder of the woman in your embrace,

"That is truly a pointless story."

You might just laugh it off.

But it doesn't matter.

Because the desperate confession the gumiho in the story murmurs toward the man is my true heart looking at you right now.

My lover who doesn't know me, my foolish person.

Please, enjoy my dance to your heart's content tonight.