Tethered (Min Ji Eun x Yoon Bum x Oh Sangwoo) (Killing Stalking)

The Only Chapter

A/N: This oneshot started with the idea of Bum being a human bunny hybrid. I already knew Sangwoo would be Bum's love interest. However, Ji Eun found her way into the story as well as a love interest for both of them. I felt bad for Ji Eun in the canon manhwa despite her being mean to poor Bum. So if you don't like Ji Eun, you probably won't enjoy this story as she is in it quite a lot. As for Dongyu, I really dislike him after he was mean to Bum so it was not a long stretch for me to think of him as Bum's childhood bully. I might write more oneshots as a series as this oneshot is really just the start of the story :)

DISCLAIMER: Koogi owns everything. I am merely a fan of KS.

When you're walking through the cold...You shouldn't have to walk alone, you know...It's bad but not so dark when we're together... Tethered – Elliot Minor

From when I was little, I knew I was very different. I was a toki, but I also felt different on the inside from other people. I had strange thoughts sometimes, and I had a very vivid imagination that sometimes blurred the lines with reality. My uncle had raised me after the death of my parents in a car accident when I was six years old. He had always firmly embedded in me a sense of inferiority to the majority of Koreans who did not have the mutated genes that led to the emergence of humans with animal features. My uncle constantly told me I was a freak, and that even if I had not been born a toki, I would have still been a useless burden to him. I was ugly, untalented and unworthy of his love or respect. Still, I was grateful he took care of me. I was fed; I had a roof over my head, and good clothes. My uncle was strict and had a sharp cutting way with words. If he felt I needed to be disciplined, he would hit me with his belt. I knew most children would have hated him for doing that, and while I did not enjoy the pain, I was happy he was paying attention to me. He rarely spoke to me apart from when he was chastising me or explaining why I needed to be punished. He ignored me most of the time. No matter how hard I tried to make him proud of me, it never worked. I was very focussed at school, and was constantly studying even in my free time. I did get good grades, but my uncle would always point out areas he thought I could improve in. My obsession with studying led to me being labelled as a teacher's pet. I was also very shy and introverted. It did not take long before I started to be bullied at school. In high school I met a girl and fell in love with her. However, I could not express my feelings for her and instead I resorted to stalking her instead. Eventually I went too far, and she put out a restraining order on me. I was expelled from the school, and my uncle had forced me to move out. He had put the deposit and first months' rent down on a tiny bedsit for me, and told me that I could no longer rely on him for anything anymore. It really hurt me deeply; as he was the only family I had left.

I knew I had made him ashamed of me, and worse was that I had dragged our family name through the mud. I still had hope that he was not pushing me out of his life for good, as despite his harsh words, he had not said he would disown me. He had also made sure I had a place to live, and managed to get me enrolled in a new school to finish my education. So I had the feeling that somewhere, deep down, he did care about me. At least slightly. He and my mom had been very close as siblings, but they had fallen out when she fell in love with my dad. What was really strange was the fact that my mom had also been a toki, but my uncle insisted it was fine for women to be toki, but that it made no sense for males to be toki. I had found a job working as a cashier in a small convenience store, having to juggle work hours around school so I could keep paying the rent on my bedsit. It had been hard, but I had been relieved when I finally graduated from high school. I had decided to get my volunteer service out of the way, and so two years went past. I hated it, and I especially hated some of the other soldiers in training who decided I would be their bullying target. I had thought the bullies I had in school were terrible, but they had been angels compared to the soldiers. They put me through hell on a daily basis, and nobody ever tried to help me. Except for the day when a group of my bullies went too far, and one of them tried to force himself on me. I had been terrified, thinking I was about to be assaulted but I had been saved by another soldier who had run off to fetch help for me. I did not know his name, but I would never forget his kind, handsome face. I just wished I had been able to see him again to tell him how thankful I was. However, soon after that horrible incident my time in the army had ended, and I was free to leave.