Gumiho are, obviously, a major part of Between You, Me, and the Moonlit Sea. Today I’d like to give you a taste of the lore surrounding gumiho in the BYMMS world.
In traditional myth, gumiho are fox spirits who can transform into beautiful, alluring women. In BYMMS, they can be born either gender and are often genderfluid. Gumiho are more commonly born female, but male gumiho aren’t uncommon at all. Cis gumiho are rarer, actually. In fact, in the entire On-jo Clan only two gumiho are cis, Key and Bell’s grandmother, Min-seo.
That said, gumiho feel their genderfluidity differently. Some gumiho will spend years as one gender, while others, like Bell, will alternate often. As genderfluidity has become more recognized in society, Bell has become more open to expressing their gender more freely, as opposed to in the past, when they would go years as one gender at a time regardless of their feelings for the sake of societal acceptance. For instance, while working as a ranch-hand in Montana and Wyoming in the 1950s, Bell presented as only masculine because of the environment they were working in. It wasn’t until the 2000s that Bell chose to be openly genderfluid and begin expressing their gender through human means instead of magical, such as binding instead of shifting their body. This allowed them to live one seamless life and not have to maintain multiple different identities that matched their gender expression.
Gumiho are born with the innate ability to shift into their fox form, which will always present itself with nine tails and their yeowoo guseul, or fox bead, tied to their tails. They can be any color a fox can normally be, but most commonly are red or gray. The rarest gumiho color is white, which helped develop the belief that gumiho who have reached enlightenment or ascended their mortality are white foxes. Gumiho don’t tend to shift for the first time until about five or six years of age, though it is possible for them to do it sooner. This just tends to be the age where they begin to grasp the idea, since shifting is a conscious choice.
When a gumiho conceives a child, there is a period of time where they can freely shift between fox form and human form without issue, but around 12 weeks they tend to settle into human form for the rest of their pregnancy, as the fetus cannot shift forms. Gumiho only conceive children in their human form. Pregnancy is also a conscious choice. Due to their shapeshifting nature, gumiho have constant control over their bodies and can choose whether or not their body does everything necessary to conceive. No accidental babies for these creatures.
Gumiho are famous in mythology for devouring men’s souls and livers. In the BYMMS universe, they will freely eat the souls and livers of any humans, and can/will consume other parts of their flesh as well. It is common for gumiho to devour hearts, for instance. Livers are their favorite, though. A gumiho can go their entire life without consuming a single human if they want to. Parents will sometimes choose to feed their children human flesh, but some opt not to until their children are old enough to make that choice for themselves. Bell’s mother, Bada, was one such parent.
Once a gumiho has tasted human flesh, they will eventually crave it again, and that craving will grow gradually stronger. Some gumiho can go years, even decades, before they feel compelled to eat a human again, but some will succumb to the cravings in as little as six months. It’s different for every gumiho. Consuming a human’s soul without eating their flesh has the same effect.
I think that’s where we’ll cap off with gumiho for the day! Is there anything else about gumiho in the world of BYMMS that you’d like to know? Tell me and it’ll appear in a later lore post!
Art by Beeohoney.
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