The Cat hides its Claws

“But Cheong has his human rights…”

“You’re the one’s who’s most delighted now.”

Jino tried to speak out for Myo Cheong, but Yuja cut him short. He was right. Jino was now clearly excited. He wanted to put rabbit Myo Cheong on his lap, but he wasn’t trying as he knew it wouldn’t work. Myo Cheong sighed, lay down on the sofa, and closed his eyes.

“Sleep in the room.”

Myohan gathered his clothes and raised him up. Myo Cheong didn’t look like he liked it, but he didn’t resist either. It was time to sleep, and since he would transform back into his human form in about an hour, sleeping on a bed until morning wasn’t the same as going to bed.

Myohan put the rabbit on his bed (which kept twitching as if he didn’t like it) and came out. O Shin was leaning against a wall, waiting for him. He looked at Myohan. He was clearly dissatisfied about something. Myohan could see what it was, so he frowned. They said nothing for a long time.

Myohan thought he would call him a cat and mock him, but he just kept his mouth shut and stared. Myohan wanted to say something, but then he realized Myo Cheong might hear them, so he stretched out a hand instead.

“Good boy.”

Then he stroked O Shin’s hair. He raised his eyebrows, but he let him do it. He even leaned down a little so that Myohan could do it more easily. Myohan went down to his ears and his cheeks, and then he put both hands behind his back and kissed him. O Shin’s eyes calmed down slowly.

“…The cat is an animal that is hard to train,” he said. He looked down, not liking that the kiss was so short, and touched Myohan’s soft lips.

“But it can follow its master in less than two days.”

He sounded like he couldn’t help it. He looked sad, as if he had no choice but to let Myohan get his way. Still, his eyes were full of affection, so Myohan kissed his finger and smiled.

“I don’t recall training you.”

Needless to say, he wasn’t his master and he wasn’t a cat. O Shin smiled even more warmly. He usually smiled only with his lips, but now, he had a huge smile plastered all over his face.

“Myohan! The food’s here!”

They didn’t know how long they stayed in front of the bedroom door. Sinsul called out to them. O Shin gave him a peck at last and headed to the living room.

‘I should stop turning Myo Cheong into a rabbit.’

Myohan thought so.

They put away all their books and put pork Bossam on the table. Sadeol’s eyes twinkled. Jino asked if they should wake up Myo Cheong, but most of them thought he wouldn’t be able to eat meat anyway as he was still a rabbit. Poor Myo Cheong. Someone muttered so.

“I really won’t change into a tiger?”

“Yes, from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m.”

Sadeol asked again to check. Myohan assured him and pointed at the clock. It was a little before 3.

“Wow, it looks delicious!”

“But Yuja, you eat fried chicken?”

“…What nonsense are you talking about? Of course I do.”

Sajun suddenly got curious and asked if Yuja ate chicken. Yuja rolled his eyes. Myohan looked away as he could remember asking a similar question to Chookjae. Well, it did sound wrong. Jagyeom muttered so under his breath.

“But…”

Myohan asked as he eyed at the meat. Sadeol couldn’t take his eyes off it, so he just nodded.

“Can’t you just eat in tiger form if you want to eat meat so badly?”

He was checking the last thing. He wondered about it when Sinsul said he never smelled anything funny on Sadeol. Turning into a tiger didn’t stop him from eating meat. He had come to Myohan’s place so late in the night just to eat meat, so he could just have eaten meat and dealt with the consequences. He could eat at home and no one would see him. Plus, it took only about an hour for him to change back.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, but…”

Sadeol grinned, showing his teeth.

“My family is just too scared of it.”

Myohan sighed.

“After seeing them get scared to death….”

Sadeol explained sadly and poked the meat with his chopstick.

“I thought everything would be fine if only I refrained from eating meat.”

“Oh, I know how that feels.”

“Ugh, it’s the contrary for me. Everyone gets so big when I transform, I’m the one who gets scared to death.”

Myohan glanced at Miho, remembering how hollow and sickly he had looked in the hospital. He also recalled Jagyeom’s fear he’d shown the moment his secret was revealed. He looked at the clock, feeling something hard forming in his chest. The hour hand was pointing at exactly 3.

“….It’s 3.”

“Yes! Let’s eat!”

O Shin, who was sitting on the sofa with crossed legs, gave Myohan a gaze, but its meaning was hard to decipher. Myohan looked way, sighed, and rubbed his forehead with a frown.

In the meantime, Sadeol excitedly put a piece of meat in his mouth. And a second later, Jagyeom exclaimed, “…Wow.”

Even Sinsul, who had started eating already, was looking right next to Myohan with wide eyes. Myohan really couldn’t find the courage to look at Sadeol, so he turned slowly. He caught a glimpse of light brown fur. Sajun muttered to himself, quite confused, “But it is 3 o’clock…”

Jagyeom was shocked to see the giant tiger. He gulped. The tiger looked very uncomfortable in his tiny clothes. He slowly turned to Myohan, his eyes piercingly cold. His pupils shrank, and he was ready to jump on him.

I knew it, he lied. He stood up slowly. His clothes would have been ripped apart if Sadeol hadn’t been a huge boy. He angrily raised a paw, but Myohan slowly blinked and put a hand on it.

“I’m sorry.”

He sounded like he meant it. He frowned and looked away, which wasn’t like him. Tic. The minute hand moved. Myohan blinked again, and he could see Sadeol back in his human form.

“….What the.”

He looked down at himself and muttered. He looked at his hands. They were human hands. Yuja looked at his phone which was just a little away from him and snorted.

‘He must have adjusted the clock.’

Myohan had worked on the clock as soon as they arrived. Yuja thought he was changing its battery or something, but he must have set it to go a little faster.

Meanwhile, Sadeol got up and turned around. Then he yelled in surprise.

“…You weren’t lying?!”

He felt something going wrong the second he ate a piece of meat. He could feel himself turning into a tiger as usual, and what he then saw were two massive paws.

‘I was fooled.’

He glared at Myohan, thinking so, but then he changed back into normal.

“What just happened?”

This had been Myohan’s plan all along. He needed to see Sadeol transform, and he wanted to eat meat, so he found a way to achieve both of them by making the clock go a little faster. It was good that Sadeol never checked his phone.

“The clock must have been fast.”

Sadeol hesitated, not knowing what was going on, and O Shin smiled and explained to him. Myohan frowned and sighed.

“I’m sorry.”

“Wow! Yes!”

Sadeol immediately sat down again and got to work. He ate two, three pieces of meat at once, and Sinsul also started to eat. He soon forgot he had just transformed and ate happily. Myohan had complicated feelings after seeing him like that.

***

“Aren’t you being too naïve?”

The exams were finally over. Sinsul got the best scores he had ever gotten in his life, so he happily jumped up and down. Yuja also felt quite good about it. O Shin whispered so as they stood at the school gate with their classmates to go to the meat buffet. Myohan frowned and he explained, “You still feel bad about tricking the tiger.”

“Not really.”

“Okay.”

But O Shin didn’t seem to believe him.

“Friend!”

Sadeol came running to them from across the schoolyard. Ever since he had meat at Myohan’s home the other day, he started calling him his friend and was always happy to see him. Seonhan was a little behind him, yelling at him to go slower.