Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
°°°
Indistinctive rustling was heard from the bushes of berries. As a young child nothing really crossed my mind other than walking over to see what it was.
With curious steps, I made my way around the plant, coming to a complete stop.
There looked up at me with curious eyes was a small wolf, with unusual pointy ears perked above its head and a long snout.
My fathers' lecture stuck with me, about the basics of encountering a wild animal. Don't provoke and leave with caution.
But of course, being stubborn kid, I carefully knelt down onto my scratched knees, taking my time by reaching out to pat it's fur. The anxious pup visibly flinched by my foreign touch but gradually came to accept the affectionate gesture.
With an accomplished grin, I continued to groom it. "It's okay. I won't hurt you." I spoke, my tone a fair bit higher than usual.
making a firm decision, I decided to bring the waif pup home. Even if it was going against my fathers' rules of bringing home an outside stray. But who'd want to snitch on a simple child?
I live in the countryside of Busan, no one will notice anything strange—not the slightest. but that's merely a thought I wanted to ease into.
It took a good minute to know which position was comfortable enough to pick up the pup. You learned from your lesson not to drag it by the arms because you nearly lost a nose.
Of course I still had to be mindful of others to see if any farmers were suspicious of something that'd felt particularly odd to them. They were normally elderly couples who worked years to extend their plantation.
After making it home safely, I entered through the front of my house. The smell of fresh bread wafting my scent and the conditioner breezing on my face.
Outside was hot and very humid which did not feel soothing for me. it felt nice to be in contact with cold air against my sweaty skin.
I made sure to signal my mother and father that I had just arrived back home safely, before dashing upstairs with the young wolf in my arms.
After closing my bedroom door and setting him on my neatly made bed, I placed myself next to him and watched as he looked around.
A soft chuckle escaped my lips, getting off the bed and kneeling in front of him.
"Hm, I can't seem to keep calling you wolfy all the time so.. how about I name you something more decent!" I exclaimed plastering a bright smile at the curious pup.
I thought about names that were popping up in my head from left to right. Thinking really hard I just started blurting out names for him.
"How about Jackson?" I curiously questioned myself, but what surprised me is that he shook his head as if disagreeing.
I almost fell on my back from just the simple shake. But I was more amazed how he understood what I had said.
I always thought wild animals wouldn't understand us human at all.
Telling my 8 year old self to get it together, I heavily sighed and went through all the names that slipped out of my tongue.
"Jaemin?"
No.
"Jongin?"
No.
"uhmm.. Kang?"
No.
"uh, uh, kyung?"
No.
I groaned in frustration, I was going to give up on naming him but I felt a light nudge on my arm.
Looking back at the little wolf, he signaled me to keep going and so I did. I thought really hard this time, since I ran out of names.
"Oh! Okay, okay, I got one for you." I gleefully said, both his ears perked up ready to know, looking as if he was anxious about what that name was.
"How about Tookie!" I said but that only made his head droop down low.
I huffed glaring at the little wolf pup who awaited for more names. Before I could go on my mother called me down to come and eat. My stomach churned as it start making weird noises.
"You wait here wolfy I'll be back after dinner and we'll discuss about your name." I said and dashed out the room, closing the door behind me so he wouldn't be able to freely roaming upstairs and suddenly get caught by my parents.
Running down the wooden staircase and towards the dinning area, I sat at my usual seat seeing both my parents already eating.
They paused on what whatever occupied them and glanced at my direction, giving me curious looks.
"Haeri you normally come down for dinner earlier than usual, what's wrong?" My mom spoke while watching as I shoved peas inside my mouth, for I to not speak about anything that's kept between me and wolfy.
"Jung Haeri. Your mother is speaking to you." My father spoke in a stern manner. I finished swallowing the food particles and slowly looked at both my parents, giving up and just decided to blurt out the truth rather than a lie.
Besides how can I keep this up? They'll suspect something is wrong and will have to find out themselves, that will turn out to be pretty ugly.
I'm only 8 who just took in a wild animal, I can't keep a secret for long. Not when it's towards my parents.
"I-I was — no wait, I found a lost and scared wolf pup behind the bushes near our house... So I decided to take him in and... maybe raise the little animal and watch him grow. I didn't say anything about it to you guys, because I know you won't except this kind of thing." I sadly said with integrity while staring at what my parents reactions would be.
Before I could start adding more things in to persuade them, my father opened his mouth to say what I probably know what he was going to say just by the looks of it.
I embraced myself waiting for just those simple words to flow out:
