He’s a Fox Ch 44

Chapter 44

‘…Is it really okay to go out in this?’

The snowfall grew so thick, it looked as though stepping a few feet away would leave them stranded. The flakes weren’t likely to stop anytime soon either. Why had this day suddenly turned into a survival story?

But it was already too late to cancel. Hohyun cast a troubled look toward the little tiger cub, nose pressed flat against the veranda glass.

Yuri’s eyes sparkled like stars. She had never seen snow before. Her gaze was fixed immovably beyond the glass, utterly transfixed. Once she’d set her sights like that, telling her “we can’t go out” would have no effect. And as the cub’s favorite “Puppy Oppa,” Hohyun knew it well.

Kangwoon hadn’t yet realized the situation. By the time he’d gone to work in the study, the skies had still been clear. But when he returned for a break, he stopped dead at the sight outside—flurries blizzarding into a whiteout.

Even if Yuri had grown a bit taller in the last weeks, she was still a child. If she ran out into this, she’d vanish under piles of snow up to her crown within minutes. Propping his chin, Kangwoon weighed the matter before calling out to his sister.

“Yuri.”

“Mm?”

“Not now. We’ll go outside a little later.”

“Why!”

“Because the snow’s coming down too hard. If you go out like this, you’ll get buried head-to-toe and catch cold. Once we clear some paths, I’ll let you out—but you have to wait.”

Yuri growled, tail lashing angrily, furious at being delayed. But Hohyun was struck with disbelief. In his hometown up the mountains, he knew firsthand just how backbreaking snow clearing was. Saying “I’ll just shovel it up, wait a minute” sounded impossible here.

That much snow wasn’t a joke. Of course, their circumstances were different. In the fox’s world, he fought alone. Here, Kangwoon had manpower and bodies as robust as iron. But even so, clearing this much at once defied imagination.

Kangwoon hoisted Yuri up from the floor, handing her off to the alligator. “First—let’s eat,” was what it meant. Throughout the whole meal, Yuri wriggled impatiently in her seat, chirping about the snow. Even Kangwoon sighed at last, beaten down. After issuing a murmur of instructions, the walls of the veranda shook as a line of beastmen filed into the yard.

Some bore ordinary steel shovels. Others hefted machines. Hohyun blinked at the latter.

As they powered on, headsets humming, a roar bellowed. Snow blasted upward in gales, scattering like waves. Only then did Hohyun recognize—leaf blowers. Industrial-grade. The kind he knew for clearing fallen leaves. He never imagined them turned against snow. But leaves or snow—at bottom, both were just things to be pushed.

The sight was surreal. Blizzards whipped upward into clouds, like a scene from a polar documentary—but now, alive before his eyes. Within ten minutes the path had cleared, ground visible again.

Once the loose snow was blown aside, the shovel team advanced on the immense drifts. With blade-thuds, they pressed and carved. Some piled small heaps to the side—enough to give Yuri play stock while keeping pathways usable.

Each plunge compacted snow; each sweep peeled heaps. Watching gave Hohyun an idea.

He shoved open the door, bounding to the workers. His eye caught a familiar black bear among them—Han Kyungwoo—and the fox’s face lit up.

“Excuse me, when you’re done… could I borrow one of the shovels?”

“…What for?”

“I wanted to stack some snow like this high.”

He lifted his arm around mid-waist as illustration. The bear didn’t hand his shovel, but simply lumbered closer and began stacking snow for him. Hohyun rushed to help, scooping with bare hands and piling atop. With numbers joining, soon a snow-hill rose, compacted hard under the fox’s pressing palms. That would do for a base.

At long last, Kangwoon gave permission. Yuri bolted at once—charging for the door in her thin underclothes. Kangwoon caught her by the scruff and deposited her safely in the alligator’s arms.

Squealing complaints, she wanted out—now. Hohyun helped soothe her, leading her alongside the alligator to a wardrobe. There they wrapped Yuri in layers upon layers of winter clothes. She looked like a rolled sponge-cake.

The alligator gave Hohyun an urgent whisper:

“That’s too much.”

“But the Boss insisted she dress really warm.”

Indeed, the Beom siblings had Siberian tiger blood—cold hardly bothered them. Even as a tot, Yuri never cried about chill. Sometimes she’d protest being overdressed, growling she was overheating. The alligator knew this, but there was no persuading Hohyun—he followed Kangwoon’s orders to the letter.

Grumbling, the alligator slipped gloves onto the cub’s bundled hands. Despite resembling a ball, Yuri said nothing. Her first snow was too tantalizing. Even if she melted inside from warmth, she’d endure. In another thirty minutes she’d likely start ripping it all off—but for now, she put up with everything just for the chance at snow.

Soon Hohyun and Yuri stood by the glass in full dress. Hohyun slid into a padded jacket with gloves, thinking it enough. But Kangwoon, arms crossed, scowled at him by the door.

“Didn’t you promise to dress warmly?” His thick striped tail thudded the floor in disapproval.

Only then did Hohyun realize—the one who warned about colds wasn’t “for Yuri.” It was aimed at him. He tried not to feel strange at the flickering warmth inside—being viewed constantly as fragile, treated with care.

Dragging him away, Kangwoon marched him into the dressing hall. The bundled, sulking cub was left for the alligator to soothe.

From there, Kangwoon wound an endless scarf around the fox’s neck. Tiger-sized, twice his length, until Hohyun couldn’t even turn his head. “I’m not a kid; you don’t have to—” he protested.

“Twenty is still a kid.”

“…I’m twenty-one!”

“Same thing.”

Tied at last into a bow like a present ribbon, he was ridiculous, but refused any protest—Kangwoon brushed it all aside. Only after adding fur trapper hat, muffling face and ears entirely, did Kangwoon step back satisfied. Now the fox had permission.

At last, wrapped to bursting like penguins, fox and cub waddled outside. The alligator snorted aloud seeing them.

Being cold-blooded, he couldn’t join them for long, and Kangwoon had year-end work obligations. So today, the snowy playground was the front garden, under full supervision.

The moment they set foot outside, Yuri gasped.

“Wow!”

The crunch-crunch beneath boots thrilled her. She explored excitedly. Hohyun bent, scooping handfuls of the snow. Forming ball after ball, laying them neatly.

Yuri peeked closer. He stacked one atop the other, pressed twigs for arms, and with two small pebbles made a face.

“Ta-da! A snowman.”

He presented it proudly to her, holding the tiny creation aloft.