As soon as they reached the front door, Yi-beom carefully set Eunho down. Eunho walked into the living room and let out a small groan.
Scattered all over the floor were rabbit-shaped apples.
“Ahjussi……”
Deliberately ignoring him, Yi-beom bent down and picked up the rabbit apples one by one.
“Go upstairs and wash up.”
“……”
“I’m not angry, so stop watching my mood.”
Watching his large frame stoop to gather the rabbit apples one at a time, guilt and remorse surged up inside Eunho. If only Yi-beom would get angry or snap at him—then he could at least apologize properly. But to someone who claimed he wasn’t angry, he couldn’t even do that.
Pressing his lips tightly together, Eunho walked up behind Yi-beom. Then he suddenly wrapped his arms around Yi-beom’s back.
“What are you doing?”
“Hugging you.”
“I’m not asking because I don’t know that.”
“You know, so why are you asking?”
Talking back again.
Yi-beom shot him a look at Eunho’s nonsensical answer. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to pry Eunho off.
Caught off guard, Yi-beom ended up standing there in an awkward half-bent posture, mid-apple-collection. When he tried to straighten up, Eunho tightened his arms around him as if afraid he might lose him.
“Ahjussi.”
Eunho called softly.
“They say a couple’s fight is like cutting water with a knife.”
“So?”
At the low voice, Eunho swallowed hard.
“But you can’t cut water.”
“What?”
“How do you cut water? It’s a liquid.”
At the words his lover uttered, Yi-beom let out a short laugh. Because of the nature of his job, he constantly met people begging for forgiveness. They were always one of two types: those who made excuses, and those who admitted their fault and reflected.
But his small, fragile lover always leapt beyond Yi-beom’s common sense.
As if telling him to go on, Yi-beom gave a slight nod.
“So?”
“So the saying that a couple’s fight is like cutting water with a knife—it doesn’t make sense.”
“Mm.”
“So, since that saying isn’t real, can’t we just say our fight never happened?”
It was the kind of miraculous logic that would make Confucius leap from his grave applauding.
Why is our baby so smart?
Yi-beom took hold of the hand clutching at his chest.
As he turned around, Eunho—who had been leaning against his back—tilted his head up.
“Can’t we?”
Eunho asked again, pressing for an answer.
……If I let this slide, he’ll get spoiled.
That’s what Yi-beom thought, yet his mouth wouldn’t move. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything harsh to Eunho, who was looking up at him with those round, earnest eyes.
Flawless pale skin, big round eyes, slightly drooping eye corners, and small, delicate lips. Overall, his face was undeniably cute. He wouldn’t look out of place standing among idols his age singing and dancing on TV.
Maybe it was because his hair had turned pale pink, but he looked even cuter than usual.
Sensing Yi-beom’s wavering heart, Eunho’s eyes curved softly.
“It works, doesn’t it?”
“No.”
Yi-beom answered with the last of his rationality. But Eunho had already caught the hesitation underneath.
“It does.”
Grinning, Eunho leaned up and pressed a kiss to Yi-beom’s cheek.
Smack.
With that sound, he pulled away and burst into laughter as he headed upstairs to the bathroom.
Yi-beom’s gaze followed him. With each step up the stairs, the white T-shirt rode up dangerously. Over his pale thighs, his bare buttocks flashed in and out of sight, tormenting Yi-beom.
“I said no.”
With an irritated motion, Yi-beom raked a hand through his hair. His face had flushed slightly.
“I said no.”
He muttered under his breath. Maybe Eunho’s words weren’t entirely wrong.
Rabbit did taste better.
“No……”
For quite a while, Yi-beom had to discipline the bad habit growing below his waist.
***
After Eunho finished washing up, Yi-beom explained several things to him—such as the government guidelines Eunchan had mentioned, and newly revealed information.
The method of humanization was easier than expected, and even if someone suddenly turned into an animal, their human reasoning remained intact, so there hadn’t been any major issues yet. Although new types of crimes—like abducting animals—had begun to appear, society, as always, was working on countermeasures.
Following Yi-beom’s instructions, Eunho repeated transforming into a human and back into a Beastman several times. Eventually, he flopped down in the middle of the living room, belly exposed. Maybe because his body had repeatedly shrunk and grown, he felt drained all over.
Grrrrr—
His stomach growled loudly.
“Didn’t you eat at hyung’s place?”
He didn’t even have the energy to answer. Eunho gave a small shake of his head.
“So you haven’t eaten anything until now?”
“Hyung gave me a few dried carrot sticks.”
“That’s not a meal.”
Yi-beom rose from the sofa. When he opened the refrigerator, containers of food neatly prepared by Mrs. Park were stacked inside. Mrs. Park, who had managed his household since Yi-beom was young, had shown up for work the very day after the world turned upside down. Her reasoning was simple: if she didn’t come, the two men would starve.
As Yi-beom pulled out a familiar container, Eunho lifted his head.
“Did she come by?”
“Yeah.”
Eunho hadn’t seen her, having been shut inside his room the entire time. I should’ve at least greeted her.
Thinking back to the last time he’d seen her, Eunho added,
“What did she turn into?”
“An otter.”
“An otter?”
Remembering the adorable otters he’d seen on social media, Eunho gasped.
“Shouldn’t she be in the water then?”
“They say you don’t turn completely into an animal at first.”
“Ohhh.”
That’s a relief.
Still lying on his stomach, Eunho smiled faintly. Somehow, the warm impression of Mrs. Park suited an otter.
If it were her, she probably would’ve made her way here even after turning fully into an otter. With that round belly of hers, she’d flop-flop all the way to the house. Just imagining an otter rolling and swimming through the sea made him feel strangely happy.
“Still, she should rest at home.”
“She’s not the type to listen.”
As he transferred a serving of fried rice into a pan, Yi-beom replied.
“Maybe it’s because she’s an otter. She kept handing washed ingredients to me.”
The corner of Yi-beom’s mouth lifted slightly.
The very first day the world turned upside down, Mrs. Park had arrived at his house—an hour away—with an armful of ingredients from her own home.
“So you were home!”
Whether Yi-beom had turned into a tiger or a lion, the only thing that mattered to her was rice. Food.
Hurriedly setting the ingredients down, she looked around the house.
“Good thing nothing happened.”
After checking the house’s condition to assess the two men, she moved around the kitchen as naturally as ever. Yi-beom gave a slight nod and approached her.
“Why did you come?”
“Why? To feed you, of course! Delivery’s down, everything’s down. If I don’t come, you two men will starve, won’t you?”
She rattled off her words quickly, then burst into laughter. Having lost her husband and son early in an accident, Yi-beom and Eunho were less like employers to her and more like troublesome, unpredictable family members.
Of course, Jung Eunho was the latter.
“Even if I turn into an otter! Or a kangaroo! I still have to do my job!”
“We can feed ourselves just fine.”
“Just fine, my foot. The both of you look so scrawny.”
In the entire world, Mrs. Park was the only one who would call Kwon Yi-beom scrawny—but he didn’t bother pointing that out. He simply answered, “Yes.”
“The baby must be sleeping.”
Glancing up toward the stairs, she grabbed green onions and onions and began washing the vegetables under running water.
The problem started there.
“He’s young, that’s why. When you’re young, you sleep so well.”
Without even realizing it, she scrubbed the vegetables clean and handed them one by one to Yi-beom.
“If you’re going to live with a young one, you’ve got to be willing to compromise.”
A few cloves of garlic and several clams disappeared somewhere into her body. She didn’t even have pockets—no one knew where they vanished.
“President Kwon sure is capable. Living with a college baby and all.”
“Mrs. Park.”
Caught holding an awkward pile of vegetables, Yi-beom called out to her.
“Hm?”
Only then did light return to her eyes.
“Oh my!”
She covered her mouth in surprise.
“Why is President Kwon holding all that?”
“……”
“Where are the garlic and clams? Didn’t I give them to you?”
“……”
All throughout cooking the fried rice and stew that day, the hide-and-seek with ingredients continued. True to an otter’s instinct of hiding treasured stones, she unconsciously kept hiding and rediscovering ingredients.
“Good grief, I’ve lived long enough to see everything.”
After telling the story of how she’d gone home early that day, drained, Eunho burst into laughter.
“Really? She did that?”
“Yeah.”
Until now, Eunho had only worried that he and Yi-beom were of different species; he hadn’t thought about differences like that.
“She’s kind of cute,”
he muttered to himself, scooping up a spoonful of fried rice.
“It must give you traits. Traits related to the animal.”
He bit down on the spoonful, and a familiar taste spread through his mouth. It was the garlic egg fried rice Mrs. Park often made.
As Eunho chewed, Yi-beom sat down across from him and wiped the corner of his mouth with one hand.
“Then do you think I’ve changed somehow too?”
With each chew, his plump cheeks moved. He already looked like a rabbit—what more could change?
Pushing the plate closer to Eunho, Yi-beom murmured softly.
