SFNFS Ch 7

Chapter 7

Hongu Bipa was a person with an overwhelming number of things to boast about.

Before delving into his own stories, one must first speak of the household and family into which he was born.

For instance, the fact that his mother was the head of Hongu Trading Company — the largest and wealthiest in the nation, and indisputably among the top handful worldwide.

Or that his two elder sisters were the ones who pioneered the modern enterprise system of establishing stores, inns, tea houses, pharmacies, and other shops named after their family across cities worldwide, all centrally managed and uniformly operated.

Even the father he had no memory of — having passed away early — was described as so beautiful and gentle that no one could help but love him. No member of the family could be described as anything less than remarkable.

Moreover, these extraordinary people adored the youngest of the family, Bipa, doting on him excessively. Their affection was the greatest source of pride and support in his life.

Of course, his pride did not rest solely on his family and lineage.

Even without relying on the brilliance of his relatives, Bipa himself had many things worth boasting about.

He possessed a moderately quick and keen mind — perhaps not grasping ten things from learning one, but easily understanding two or three.

He had a graceful physique that flattered anything he wore, and an innate fashion sense that made perfect use of this advantage.

Yet even so, his most outstanding feature was his unclothed body, bare of even a thread.

When he read poetry softly, his gentle, pleasant jade-like voice drew anyone to listen.

His personality was amiable and easygoing, able to talk well with anyone, laugh easily, play well, and even toss out lighthearted jokes that were genuinely amusing.

Naturally, his appearance was exquisite.

His face was pure and beautiful like polished jade, with no flaws in his natural features. As mentioned before, his physique was lithe and elegant, so whether clothed or bare, he was strikingly lovely. Bipa had lived his whole life hearing nothing but “How beautiful!” wherever he went.

Even his fingers and toes were beautiful.

The nails at the tips of his fingers and toes were fair and neat. A person he once dated for quite some time — stoic and statue-like — had kissed those toes every night, saying he couldn’t help himself because they were so lovely. That same person had pressed tender kisses onto his fingers, overcome with affection.

From the crown of his head to the smallest toenail, there was not a single part of him that was not beautiful or unworthy of pride.

This outward beauty harmonized perfectly with his fragrance aura (Hyanghun) — the unique personal scent one was born with — so among all his countless admirable traits, Bipa took the greatest pride in his beauty and fragrance, cherishing these harmonious gifts the most.

He didn’t need to explain or flaunt them; everyone he met instantly noticed and admired them. It was an obvious and undeniable point of pride.

Beauty and fragrance were the foremost descriptors that inevitably followed whenever Bipa was mentioned.

The face reflected in the mirror was always freshly beautiful, never tiring to look at no matter how long one gazed. After coming of age, his natural body scent — likened to evening primroses — deepened further, befitting his identity as a Moon-born.

Thus, he adorned himself all the more carefully and cherished these things dearly in his heart.

…And then he lost them.

Suddenly, in an instant.

Things that could hardly ever be lost by any ordinary means — Bipa truly lost them.

At first, he thought he was still drunk.

But after checking several times and finding the same impossible reality, he wondered if he was still dreaming.

Yet he was neither drunk nor dreaming. He was breathing and alive, so he couldn’t be under a ghostly enchantment either.

In other words… this was reality. No matter how much he pinched himself, the sharp pain in his skin confirmed it.

He had spent a full two days sitting still before a mirror, verifying this. Unless Bipa had suddenly gone completely mad overnight, what had happened to him was real. He now had to accept and believe it. But—

“How could such a thing even happen…?”

Unable to believe it, Bipa muttered in a daze. It was the question he had murmured hundreds of times already — an unbelievable change, a monstrous disaster. A transformation so absurd it matched the literal meaning of the word “change.”

Could such a ridiculous situation truly be real?

Recalling once more the bitter thoughts he had turned over countless times during the past two days, Bipa let out a sigh that was almost a sob.

“Can a person really… turn into a monster overnight?”

The hideous thing reflected in the mirror was undeniably his own face, perched upon his neck. The dreadful stench filling his nostrils was unquestionably his own fragrance aura.

“How can this be happening to me…?”

Half-naked and disheveled, Bipa sat weeping on the floor beneath the luxurious bed in his golden mansion. He threw aside the mirror he had been checking repeatedly, tore at his already tangled hair, and wailed aloud.

As if even that wasn’t enough to express his sorrow, he toppled backward like a tantrum-throwing child, flailing his limbs. Staring up at the ceiling, he burst into even louder sobs.

He even flipped over onto his stomach, pounded the floor with clenched fists — but quickly stopped. It didn’t make him feel any better; only his fists hurt. So he hastily shook off the pain and sat up again.

Harboring a shred of futile hope, he checked the mirror again — but the grotesque face staring back was unchanged.

“Like a monster…”

When Bipa’s face crumpled into tears, the monster in the mirror mirrored the same expression.

Confirming this, Bipa opened his mouth wide and wailed, his uvula visible. The monster in the mirror wailed back identically.

Tears streamed down his cheeks, and with them came the intensified stench of fish.

“Waaah… Why is this happening to me?”

Two days earlier.

The morning of the Grand Festival in Seogyeong.

Roused painfully from a hangover caused by the previous night’s heavy drinking, Bipa discovered that he had lost the two things he cherished most — his beautiful face and his fragrant body scent.

Whether “lost” was truly the correct term was debatable, but to Bipa, who felt an immense, indescribable sense of loss, it hardly seemed inaccurate.

More precisely… his face and body scent had completely changed.

The mirror that should have reflected the beautiful face resembling his father — lauded as the incarnation of Wolcheonja — now showed a hideous frog monster.

Green, slimy skin; bulging black eyes without whites; a nose reduced to mere holes; and an enormous mouth stretched wide to either side. Yet below the neck remained his perfectly normal human body — enough to make him faint.

Indeed, two days ago, upon glimpsing his bizarre reflection in passing, Bipa had rubbed his eyes, checked again, and rushed to another mirror for confirmation. When he confirmed once more that the monster’s face was perched on his neck, he had let out a strangled “Hrk!” and collapsed on the spot.

Fortunately, a servant standing outside the door to wake him had rushed in at the thud and slapped his cheeks, reviving him quickly. But the fainting had been real — “enough to faint” was no exaggeration.

After waking, even repeated checks showed the same monstrous reflection, confirming it wasn’t a dream — prompting another bout of sobbing. And then he discovered yet another new problem.

For beings like him, their fragrance aura should naturally intensify when bodily fluids — tears, mucus, sweat — were released. Yet no trace of his evening primrose scent remained.

Instead, what grew stronger was the fishy, damp odor one might only smell near a swampy pond where frogs lived.

Realizing this second abnormality belatedly, Bipa stopped crying and began sniffing himself.

And so, up until now, he had been rolling around on the floor, bawling like a seven-year-old child robbed of his treasured belongings.

“I’ve become a monster… a fishy-smelling frog… My face turned into a frog monster…”

Frog face… fishy smell…

Frog face… fishy smell…

Collapsed in renewed despair, Bipa mumbled those two phrases over and over.

And finally, at the tail end of his sobbing, came a single question, whispered like a broken whimper:

“Who in the world… and for what reason… stole those beautiful things from me?”

Footnotes:

Fragrance aura (향훈 / Hyanghun): In this setting, individuals are born with unique personal scents that can intensify with emotions or bodily fluids. These scents are often symbolic of their nature or status.

Wolcheonja (월천자): A title meaning “Son of the Moon and Heaven,” suggesting divine or celestial parentage, elevating Bipa’s father’s status beyond ordinary humans.

Seogyeong (서경): Literally “Western Capital,” often referring to an imperial city or major cultural hub in historical Korean-inspired settings.