DMWP V2C3 – Part 4

The next day at lunchtime, Yoon Chi-young woke up earlier than Heeseong.

Upon waking, he habitually checked for the puppy’s presence in bed first. The start of the day, always gloomy before, had become the most anticipated time since Heeseong arrived.

Oddly enough, whether in human form or transformed into his original shape, the puppy seemed to be made of a ball of fluff. Looking closely, one could see the tufts of fur dotting his cheeks, and his round, gentle appearance was just like a puppy. Yoon Chi-young thought his ideal type was someone mature, but after meeting Gyeon Heeseong, he realized that wasn’t the case. He liked a fierce puppy with a bad personality who was always harboring thoughts of revenge.

Even now, as soon as Heeseong woke up and their eyes met, he fiercely scowled, but a joyful smile leaked from Yoon Chi-young first.

“You beastly bastard…”

Even hearing curses, Yoon Chi-young smiled and kissed Heeseong’s hair.

“Did you sleep well?”

Despite the honey-sweet affectionate question, Heeseong glared at him sideways. His expression clearly said, ‘You beastly bastard, how could I have slept well?’ Yoon Chi-young knew being called a beast was a grave insult among beastmens, but strangely, even when Heeseong cursed at him sincerely, it only sounded cute. Perhaps it was because he saw the slight tension in Heeseong’s firm eyes within his round ones.

“…How long is a wolf’s mating season?”

“All winter.”

“……”

As soon as he heard the answer, Heeseong’s eyes froze in shock. It was still December. There were two more months until spring arrived. Fear. Confusion. Distrust. All sorts of emotions froze and trembled in his black eyes.

After a brief silence, Heeseong rolled his body to the other side of the bed.

“Don’t transform.”

Before Yoon Chi-young could hug Heeseong and turn him over, Heeseong acted first.

Whoosh.

He instantly transformed into a puppy. Yoon Chi-young forlornly gazed at the tiny puppy left in his arms.

Even looking with pleading eyes, the puppy was heartless. The puppy, who boldly went to the edge of the bed without hesitation, bravely jumped off below. It could have been dangerous, but thankfully there was a cushion underneath.

“We just spent our first night together, are you really going to be like this…?”

Even when Yoon Chi-young asked pitifully, the puppy ignored him, lying on the cushion with its pink belly exposed like a human. The puppy knew that being in its original form was the best defense. It was a clever puppy.

Feeling disappointed, Yoon Chi-young lifted the cushion onto the bed. He had no intention of having more sex anyway, but out of spite, he gently stroked the puppy’s neck and teasingly muttered,

“After enjoying it together all night…”

‘Shut up!’

As if admitting it was embarrassing, the puppy bit his hand. But it didn’t hurt at all, and when Yoon Chi-young gently stroked its neck and belly, the puppy that had been biting hard fell asleep as if fainting from exhaustion. Its pink tongue was even slightly sticking out.

Yoon Chi-young lay down next to the puppy and stroked its tiny body with one finger for a long time. Strangely, the more he did that, the flatter the puppy’s body seemed to become. That sight was so adorable that Yoon Chi-young even gently bit its front paws. However, the puppy, exhausted from the night’s ordeal, only twitched its front paws without waking up.

Ding.

Then a text message arrived. Yoon Chi-young lay on his side and checked his phone without much interest. There were numerous missed work-related messages from yesterday, but he left them as they were, knowing the organization members would handle them anyway.

However, the message that had just arrived caught Yoon Chi-young’s attention.

[Did you eat that mutt?]

The number the message was sent from wasn’t saved, but he could sufficiently guess who it was. It would be either one of his brothers who were wary of him or Yang Hye-chan.

Yoon Chi-young stared at the message without much interest, then turned on his camera and took a cute selfie with the puppy sleeping as if passed out. As expected, the puppy was photogenic. It turned out like a pictorial, as if spending a peaceful morning with a puppy sticking out its tongue and sleeping while the atmosphere was relaxed.

[Photo sent]

Yoon Chi-young could easily predict what the other person would think after seeing the photo. They would think he was crazy for doing this while being a monogamous wolf, or that he was toying with them. However, Yoon Chi-young didn’t care what they thought of him.

Rather than pondering over the person picking a fight, Yoon Chi-young found it more entertaining to take photos of Heeseong and took a few more pictures of the sleeping puppy. Even when the exhausted puppy half-opened its eyes while sleeping, it only looked adorable.

Happily smiling while checking the photos, another text arrived.

[Does that mutt know you really ate a person?]

“Haa…”

Annoyed, Yoon Chi-young ignored the message and carelessly tossed his phone aside.

Flopping down on the bed, Yoon Chi-young pressed the puppy that had been lying on the cushion right against his cheek. Perhaps very tired, Heeseong didn’t open his eyes even when Yoon Chi-young rubbed his face against its body.

Yoon Chi-young gently bit the puppy’s ear, not enough to hurt. As if annoyed by the disturbance, the puppy mumbled and kicked Yoon Chi-young’s face with its paw. Based on previous experience, what it was saying now was mostly rough curses, but Yoon Chi-young was just happy and gently stroked the puppy’s neck before closing his eyes. In fact, he couldn’t believe this moment.

Even after sleeping together, he hadn’t shown any aggression towards Heeseong.

Yoon Chi-young smiled and pressed the tip of his nose against the puppy’s small, white head. Then the purely gentle scent he had smelled on the day they first met wafted up.

〈Doesn’t it smell like a puppy somewhere?〉

That day, he felt it was just a simple coincidence, but now Yoon Chi-young considered that moment to be fate. Just being able to show no aggression, which he himself had detested, to the person he loved felt like an undeserved blessing to Yoon Chi-young.

Yoon Chi-young wrapped his hand around the puppy’s body in a circle and happily closed his eyes. He had no idea that liking someone just as he truly was could be this blissful. For the first time, he didn’t feel disgusted by his own original form. He felt that now he could accept, even slightly, the appearance that even his family couldn’t accept.

***