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XII

[AN] 

Hello beauties!!

For this update, I have some more angst for you but WITH fluff cause you can never have too much of that right?

We're gonna take a look into how Minho and Minhyuk met plus introduce another new character! This is another long one so I'm sorry for that, I hope you don't mind the length, there's just a lot to cover. Hopefully after this we can get into other things and I can move the plot forward with where it needs to go. But I must say, there's a lot going on in this chapter, hints for this and that, so really pay attention ;)

A couple notes:
  - Minhyuk is older than all the kids(he's 24 at present)
  - Lia(the new character) is a year older than Minhyuk

I hope you all are ready!

Enjoy the chapter! :)

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(7 years ago)

Minho watched with a quirked brow as a woman in bright periwinkle heels and an expensive looking polyester skirt dragged her child away roughly by the hand. The child, a little with unruly ginger hair, reached back towards Minho, his lips jut out into a pout.

Minho smiled slightly, his sleek midnight tail swinging silently from where it was tucked under his shirt.

The little boy had run up to Minho while he'd been enjoying the sun on a bench in his local park. The boy had only been curious, asking Minho politely if he could touch his ears. He had reminded Minho of his younger siblings and with a fond smile, he had tipped his head in an open invitation, chuckling when the child had gasped.

The child had just run his pudgy toddler finger over the small appendages, his mouth open in awe, when he'd been ripped away from Minho. His cheerful demenor had disappeared instantly as the child's mother screeched about how he shouldn't touch such filth, spitting this and that about how dangerous hybrids were, especially big cats.

Hybrids like Minho.

Minho sighed, sinking further into the bench as the boy and his mother disappeared around the corner. He stomped his foot in a nearby puddle, a familiar tug of loneliness pulling at his heart.

The fall rains were rapidly descending upon Seoul and Minho knew he'd have to find shelter soon if he didn't want to spend the next month soaked to the bone. But he refused to return to his parents' home, the thought of pathetically standing on their porch, begging them to take back their disgraced son gave him physical pain.

He couldn't bear the thought of watching his younger siblings cower from him in fear or listening to his parents berate him as if he could help the fact that he sprouted fur and sharp canines. If he'd ever so much as moved too fast, his parents had recoiled as if he'd devour them in one fell swoop.

It was not the life he wanted, but it was the life he'd been given.

Minho pulled on one of his ears, wondering what his life would have been like if he'd been born a smaller, less rare cat-hybrid.

Anything other than the panther that constantly raged underneath his skin, begging to be let out to prowl, to hunt, even just to stretch his limbs.

But Minho had learned long ago that his panther was not welcome and that even his perky, black ears was far too much. He was scorned by society, labeled as something to be feared, to be hidden, to be loathed.

Even the other hybrids who had lived in his neighborhood refused to acknowledge him, all of smaller, more accepted breeds of hybrids.

When Minho was ten, he'd chanced shifting in front of the parrot hybrid next door, trusting their friendship and foolishly thinking the result would be different that time. He'd been chased out of her home in a flurry of vibrant green feathers and food pellets. After that, the kids had said he'd tried to eat her, would run at the very sight of him, or worse, would pelt him with trash as he passed, spewing every horrible name they could conjure.