Looking for Your Light

Chapter 3

Felix led her to the room at one end of the hallway upstairs. At first the door looked like all the others, but she realized the space between it was smaller than the rest of the rooms. A purplish light shone out from underneath the door.

"Chris treats his office like a studio. Don't let him fool you, he works hard, but he likes to give an atmosphere that he's comfortable so the rest of the pack – and you too, should you move in – feel like they can approach him." Hana nodded, the nerves starting to bubble up in her chest. "He can come off pretty intimidating at first, but he's a sweetheart."

"More intimidating than Minho?" Felix laughed, the sound high and light, a contrast to his warm and rich bass tones.

"I don't know that anyone is more intimidating than Minho, at least at first. When Jeongin gets angry he's the most terrifying out of all of us." She smiled. The tightness in her chest lessened, if only a little bit. Felix knocked on the door, and a warm voice bid the two of them to enter.

The room was bathed in purples and pinks. A man sat at a large desk facing away from the door, a hoodie pulled up over his head as he hurriedly closed a series of windows spanning across his four monitors. A beat played lightly in the background, but I realized it was actually thumping out of the headphones that hung around the back of his neck. Felix must have noticed too, his cat ears twitching as his face scrunched into a displeased expression.

"Chris, I've told you about turning your music too loud. You're gonna go deaf."

"And why do you think we keep Changbin around?" He smirked, standing to greet the new arrival. "It's very nice to meet you..." He trailed off, wide eyes looking desperately at Felix.

"Hana."

"Right! Hana!" He bowed, and Hana couldn't resist a grin of her own.

"Nice to meet you. I hear you're looking for a caretaker?"

"Yeah, and he needs it." Felix mumbled under his breath as Chris shot him a sharp look of disapproval.

"That's enough, Lix". Felix made an exaggerated curtsy and scampered out of the room. Chris, rolling his eyes, followed the younger hybrid and closed the door behind him. "Sorry, I was in the middle of work. I can lose track of time that way sometimes."

"No problem, I understand." He looked familiar, but Hana couldn't quite place why. His smile, in particular, though at the moment a bit forced and frustrated, seemed to trigger some deep memory in her mind, but she wasn't sure where it was coming from.

"Please, take a seat." He gestured to an armchair in the corner of the room. Hana approached it, seeing a lint roller on the seat. She picked it up, and heard a sharp intake of breath behind her.

"Ah, I'm sorry! Felix likes to sit there in cat form and he got his fur all over it, I told him to clean it and... well I guess you can at least see why we need a little extra help around here." Even in the lighting, Hana could see a blush forming on his cheeks. Chris turned away, grabbing up a remote and adjusting the lights to a more neutral setting. As he did, his hood fell away to reveal a pair of wolf ears poking out over his dark, curly hair.

Certain types of hybrids were fairly common in the world. Cats and dogs, for one, seemed to exist in just about every city. Growing up in a metropolitan area Hana had seen a few other small-animal hybrids, like Changbin, Hyunjin and Jisung. She hadn't even been fully surprised by Jeongin, a fennec fox, as they were typically used for at-home care for the elderly due to their instincts and nature. She'd run into a handful over the years.