Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Author's Note

“For you, I wanted to become a human being.
“I wanted to experience living and dying with the person I love without harming them, because that person is you.”

The unpublished debut work of Jeong Bo-ra, author of "The Cursed Rabbit," a finalist for the 2022 Booker Prize
The love story of a man and a gumiho who wanted to stay by each other's side until the end.

■ A love story between a man and a gumiho that crosses the boundaries between this world and the afterlife.

『Ho』 is a romance fantasy and horror genre novel.
It consists of three parts, each containing about 20 short chapters.
It is a work close to the grammar of web novels, with a fast-paced story and sentences that are free of unnecessary details.
If we look at 『Ho』 from a human perspective, we can simply say that it is 'the story of a man who was bewitched by a fox,' but if we look at it from the perspective of a gumiho, we can also see it as 'the story of a fox who loved a man without end.'
What makes 『Ho』 special is that the ‘man’ loved the ‘woman’ even though he knew that she was a fox, and the ‘fox’ also decided to love a man again even though she had been betrayed by a human man in the past.
A 'man' even gives up his life for love.
The 'fox' appears before the man again and again, risking her life for love.
As the sentence at the end of the novel says, "Ho" tells us that love is truly unknowable, that fate is truly unknowable, through a long story that mixes romance and horror well.

■ A sad and arduous, yet beautiful novel

It has been 15 years since author Jeong Bo-ra wrote 『Ho』.
In 2008, when his maternal grandmother collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage, the author, who had a special relationship with her, returned to Korea from Russia in a hurry.
And while taking care of her maternal grandmother, she thinks about turning the story of the 'gumiho' into a modern romance.
In 『Ho』, there is the love between the main characters, ‘Gi-jun’ and ‘Yeo-woo’, but there is also the love of ‘Grandma’ who opposes the meeting between ‘Gi-jun’ and ‘Yeo-woo’, and the love of Gi-jun who goes to great lengths to save ‘Gi-jun’s’ life.
In a way, it may be that only when one love surpasses another does that love become true love.


Life is sad and difficult.
The life of 'Gi-jun', a cram school instructor who takes the late-night bus home every day, the life of 'Ji-eun', a gumiho who works as a makeup artist, a nurse, and a cram school instructor but cannot trust anyone, the life of 'Grandma' who cannot easily close her eyes because she is worried about her grandson - they are all sad and difficult.
But, in the sense that there are relationships that cannot be predicted even an inch ahead, isn't it true that life is beautiful?

■ Between obsession and love

Is loving someone different from being infatuated with someone? The protagonist, Ki-jun, risked his life to stay by the gumiho, Ji-eun. Ji-eun, despite her grandmother's harsh words and the talisman's interference, continued to linger by the human man, Ki-jun. Is this infatuation or love?
『Ho』 adds the joy of romance and a strange twist to author Jeong Bo-ra's characteristically terrifying, fantastical, and surreal story.
The story of a human and a fox who wanted to stay by each other's side until the end: is it infatuation or love? It's up to the reader to decide how to interpret it.