1) No Way!
A chill brushed against his forearm, tugging him halfway out of sleep.
The next moment, he felt a heavy weight pressing down on his chest. It was like someone had dropped a boulder on him—every breath was a struggle. Jae-ha quickly realized that whatever it was, it wasn’t just pressing on his chest—it was big and heavy enough to smother his whole body.
What the hell, this is suffocating… Still groggy and with his eyes shut, he grimaced faintly. That’s when he felt something shift on top of him.
The texture was oddly contradictory—firm, yet strangely soft—and it was rubbing up against him. A languid breath touched his shoulder, almost like someone cuddling up in their sleep.
At the same time, a hand—so warm it felt nearly hot—slid under his T-shirt.
It slipped beneath the slightly lifted hem of his shirt and moved with impudent ease, as if it belonged there, stroking along his waist and side before crawling around to hug his back. Dry yet clingy, the closeness was suffocating.
The sensation was unfamiliar to the point of alien.
His sleep-drenched brain finally started working again. As his senses grew clearer, the heaviness behind his eyelids vanished in an instant. He shot awake, alert at last.
“What the hell?”
His shocked voice came out hoarse, giving it an oddly sultry tone that didn’t match the situation at all.
As if reacting to the sound, the man lying on top of Jae-ha shifted slightly. The head nestled between his chest and shoulder gave a lazy rub, dragging soft strands of hair along with it. But the man didn’t wake; he only seemed to sink deeper into a doze.
Jae-ha lived alone. There should be no one else in his apartment but him.
Who the hell is this guy?
He reached out and fumbled around beside the bed until he found the switch to the mood lamp. A gentle glow spilled out from the nightstand, casting light over the bed. His still-dazed eyes immediately sought out the intruder occupying the space on top of him.
But no matter how hard he stared, the unfamiliar face—smooth and well-shaped—was one he had never seen in his life.
And more than that, the guy was massive. Jae-ha himself was taller than the average man, but this guy’s body completely blanketed him from above. If someone were to walk in now, they’d probably think Jae-ha had vanished beneath the sheer bulk of this man.
There wasn’t a single part of him—shoulders to hips—that wasn’t pinned down. Between their intertwined legs, he could feel the press of solid muscle against his bare skin. It was like being physically caged in by someone’s body, unable to move an inch.
The arms wrapped around his torso weren’t gripping him tightly, but they were strong enough that he couldn’t just slip out. Any attempt at wiggling free got him nowhere.
Eventually, Jae-ha gave up trying to escape on his own and spoke up.
“Hey. Wake up.”
Fortunately, the guy had only wrapped his arms around Jae-ha’s waist, so his own arms were free. He gave the stranger’s shoulder a few sharp taps. The man mumbled something in protest like a sleepy child and blinked open his eyes with a sluggish flutter.
“Let me sleep a little more…”
He murmured like they were longtime lovers or something, then pulled Jae-ha closer into his chest and rolled them both onto their sides. The sound of soft breathing resumed.
This wasn’t just absurd—it was so far outside the realm of normal that Jae-ha couldn’t even process it. His mind blanked out. But the weight pinning him down eased slightly with the shift in position, allowing him to breathe again—and in that brief moment of clarity, he realized something new.
The man was completely naked.
Even in that state, the pervert had the audacity to hug Jae-ha tighter and cradle the back of his head into his chest. The heat radiating from his body surged into Jae-ha’s skin, making him flush.
“What the—are you insane?!”
Jae-ha snapped and slammed his fist down. The wet thump of skin against skin rang out sharply.
“Ugh…”
Only then did the pervert actually wake up. With an annoyed groan, he sucked in a slow breath and lifted himself up.
His eyes, filled with pure irritation, flicked between his own body and Jae-ha’s like he couldn’t figure out what the problem was. Like he hadn’t done a damn thing wrong.
To make things worse, as the standoff dragged on, he casually reached over and stole Jae-ha’s blanket—then had the nerve to modestly wrap it around himself like he was suddenly shy.
This motherfucker—
Jae-ha growled.
“What the hell are you?”
A pervert who broke into someone’s home, crawled into bed, and slept wrapped around the homeowner? He’d never even heard of such a thing. But hey, the world of perverts was beyond comprehension for regular people. He had to stay on guard.
“I said, who are you?”
Through the folds of the blanket, he could make out the guy’s body—and it was more built than he’d expected. Broad shoulders, solid chest… So all that crushing weight had been pure muscle.
He’d probably lose in a real fight, but he could at least get a surprise hit in and run. Jae-ha kept a close eye on the guy, ready to bolt if necessary.
But instead, the man looked troubled, like he was seriously thinking something over. He kept opening and closing his mouth, letting out noncommittal sounds like “Mm…” and “Uh…”—clearly trying to figure out what to say. Then finally, a voice low and soft spilled out.
“Uh, the… dog…”
“What did you just say?”
“The dog you picked up last night. That was me.”
Why bring that up all of a sudden? Jae-ha furrowed his brow. Now that he thought about it, it did feel like he had fallen asleep with the dog in bed… but after this pervert showed up, the dog had completely vanished. Did it run off to the living room? Still, if there was an intruder, shouldn’t it have barked? Ungrateful little thing, after he went through the trouble of bathing it.
“I am that dog.”
So timid…
“What?”
“I said, I am that dog.”
An abyss of silence opened between them.
“The hell are you talking about?”
That was all Jae-ha could manage to say after a long pause.
He could take a joke if it made sense, but this… Was this guy seriously trying to mess with him right now? As the confusion spiraled past a certain threshold, fury exploded in its place.
“You bastard, what did you do with my dog?!”
Jae-ha stormed forward and yanked the blanket off the pervert like he was grabbing someone by the collar. The sheer force of it jerked the man’s body toward him. Yet even as he clutched the blanket like a lifeline, the pervert stubbornly stuck to his claim.
“I told you, that was me.”
“You’re human. Now where the hell is my dog?”
Even in all this chaos, not a single bark rang out. The dog that had calmly curled up in bed with him last night was nowhere to be seen—not a sound, not a trace. The silence only made it more likely that this guy had pulled something shady. What if it was hurt? Or unconscious? That thought sent a chill down his spine.
“I really am the dog…”
Mumbling under the pressure of Jae-ha’s rage, the pervert suddenly shut his eyes. He wasn’t seriously about to sleep in the middle of this, was he? Or maybe he was bracing to get hit? Fine. Let’s start with a punch, then. Jae-ha curled his fist, fully intending to deliver on that thought.
But then, out of nowhere, the man’s body shrunk.
In a blink, his large frame vanished beneath the blanket. Wh—what the hell?! Just as Jae-ha froze, a damp nose poked out from under the covers and nuzzled the back of his hand. There was no mistaking it—that was a dog’s snout.
Right where the pervert had been sitting just a moment ago, the large dog from last night was now calmly seated, wagging its tail.
Those shiny black eyes locked onto Jae-ha with unmistakable recognition. The dog stepped closer and gently nudged its snout against his knee, affectionately. The slightly damp touch came through the thin fabric with vivid clarity.
His wide, shaking eyes darted between the now-empty blanket and the tail wagging steadily beside it. The scowl that had twisted his features melted away into a stunned stare, and the tension in his clenched fist unraveled. It was like someone had cast a spell—too surreal to believe.
After blinking in silence for what felt like ages, Jae-ha slowly leaned toward the nightstand. He grabbed the small rectangular device lying there.
“…Yes, police?”
“No, please don’t.”
The naked pervert lunged at him again.
Toppling Jae-ha over, he deftly snatched the phone and ended the call before tossing it far out of reach.
Jae-ha glared up at the pervert now straddling him, having been physically overwhelmed. A dog turning into a human? As unbelievable as it sounded, it had just happened right before his eyes. There was no denying it anymore.
“What are you?”
The man, who had now hastily wrapped his lower half with the blanket, answered sincerely.
“Ju Hae-hyun.”
“No, I’m asking what you are.”
Instead of answering directly, the man let out a thoughtful hum. He seemed to be searching for the right words before finally speaking.
“Have you ever heard of a Haetae?”
Jae-ha raised an eyebrow skeptically. He doubted the guy was talking about the brand. There was only one other Haetae he knew of.
“You mean the one in front of Gwanghwamun?”
