Doubler || NCT || Completed

18

Yujin knew that she had shifted to her animal form the moment she woke up. It was easy to tell, even though it had been a long time since the last time she had woken up as a harvest mouse without remembering how it had happened.

Indeed, what had happened?

The harvest mouse started trembling when she realised that her memory was patchy and unclear. The last thing she could remember was that they had found her and chased after her. She had gotten hurt.

But she felt warm. Why?

Yujin thought about how she didn't even have a clue of where she was sleeping.

Shiny, black eyes snapped open and she was faced with the fact that she was sleeping in someone's hand.

What.

The mouse squinted and saw that the hand she had slept on belonged to Jeno. She had feared that the hunters had found her, so relief relaxed her tensed muscles instantly after she recognised his sleeping face.

Yujin looked around, trying to fathom the situation.

If she saw correctly, her 'bed' (Jeno's palm) was resting on a real bed. Yujin, as tiny as she was, was the only one on top of the bed, while Jeno's hand was reached as her mattress, his head rested against the edge of the bed frame, and the rest of him was supposedly on the floor. He was sleeping in a position that seemed uncomfortable and Yujin couldn't understand why he would sleep seated on the floor, resting only his head and one arm on the bed.

Was it because of her?

Yujin hopped off of his palm and skittered towards his face. He was fast asleep, his cheek adorably squished against the blanket. Yujin would've smiled at the sight in front of her if only harvest mice were able to smile.

He looked cute.

She climbed down from the bed and looked for something she could cover herself with after transforming back to human. The harvest mouse was unwilling to let her take the lead, as it was still too afraid, but Yujin knew that she could trust Jeno. A set of folded clothing was on the floor and Yujin decided to transform and borrow the clothes while Jeno was still sleeping.

While the transformation was easy - the harvest mouse let her regain control begrudgingly when it sensed that there was no one else in the room besides her and Jeno -, Yujin was shocked by the soreness all over her body once she was back to her human form.

It felt like her entire body - including all of her muscles and joints - was in pain and a headache started pounding her brain immediately, followed by churning nausea. Her calf muscles cramped when she stood up and the old wound on her arm reminded her of its existence as well. The harvest mouse had been better at suppressing the pain than her human body.

"Ow", Yujin whispered. She wanted to get painkillers as soon as possible, and some water wouldn't hurt either, based on how dry her throat felt.

There was a note on top of the clothes Yujin had discovered from the floor. 'You can use these! :)' the note said. Yujin smiled halfheartedly at the note, wondering whether it was written by Jeno or someone else.

Yujin closed the bedroom door behind her after dressing up and leaving sleeping Jeno behind. The hallway was dark and quiet as Yujin padded towards the other end of it, passing by many closed doors. It was a big apartment. Somehow Yujin had thought that Jeno lived on his own, despite knowing that packs tended to live together.

She followed the hallway into dimly lit kitchen. The atmosphere in the apartment was silent and sleepy, and, based on the darkness she had seen behind the windows of the room she had woken up in, it was night.